Japanese iTunes Store Enhancements: iTunes Plus, 3G Downloads, Ringtones, Complete My Album

[GenesisST]

"- Mastered for iTunes: Rolling out on a worldwide basis, Apple is now featuring songs and albums that have been specifically mastered for the iTunes Store to provide the best sound quality for the format."

AKA Musicians who're writing their music with MP3 compression in mind.

Not really. I remember reading a article about some classical music record company using algorithm to make CDs sound better. IN don't know the details, but it was something like they don't take the value at each sample, but look at the value before and after and decide on a better value.

So, yes, it is compressed and yes, sample rate is smaller than source, but if you encode intelligently, it will sound **better**.

That being said, purists, like descendants of kings that had great composers on retainer, will say that a full orchestra in the castle is the best. Followed by 8-track...

Cheers!

 

[Nermal]

Anyone else surprised that some of these features are just now getting to other parts of the world? iTunes Plus, ringtones, and 3g downloads have been in the US store for ages, and I think even many European stores have most if not all of these features.

The "fragmentation" in iTunes is incredible; some countries only have iOS apps and no music! Having said that, I didn't know that Japan was so far behind. As far as I'm aware, NZ has everything except TV programmes (although a few years ago I stumbled upon an empty area for them and a price; $3.59 each).

 

[zorahk]

Holy **** Japan

 

[ChristianVirtual]

AMAZING! I'm glad this was on the front page for fear of missing this vital info.

Believe it or not: there are people living in Japan ... And they use Apple ... And read MR ... yoroshiku onegaishimasu

 

[kyjaotkb]

They're just getting iTunes Plus now? I knew Japanese record labels were fussy and behind the times, but I didn't know they were that fussy behind the times.

welcome to the land of Sony !

 

[petsounds]

From the PDF, Apple are asking for higher quality masters (not just CD-quality music) and making iTunes Plus music out of those. It's still lossy but it's being encoded from a better quality original file. So it's another improvement, and the albums that are on iTunes now haven't got any sort of price increase, which is lovely.

Better-quality master…let's be clear about what that means. Right now most albums are mastered (and often recorded!) at 16-bit/44.1kHz because that's what the CD format is. People talk up 96kHz (double the sampling rate), but it's a more subtle quality increase compared to recording at 24-bit (bits per sample).

So Apple wants bands to give their music to Apple at 24/96 or 24/88.2, I'm assuming. The problem is, for us this results in little benefit. AAC is still a lossy format. Starting with higher-quality masters will do very little for the sound quality unless Apple starts selling lossless files. This sounds more like gimmick than an actual commitment by Apple to high-quality music. But maybe they'll surprise us.

It's also frustrating to me that all models of the iPhone still cannot play AIFF or Apple Lossless files with a sampling rate of 96kHz or above. Macs certainly can, but their mobile cousins are aurally-challenged. This is why I doubt Apple will release lossless music anytime soon on their store -- they'd have to release new iPhones and iPads just to play them.

----------

The "fragmentation" in iTunes is incredible; some countries only have iOS apps and no music!

This is because Apple has to make content deals with the local music & tv/movie companies in each market they sell in. I'm sure there's a whole army of Apple lawyers just devoted to the store!

 

[Aragornii]

So Apple wants bands to give their music to Apple at 24/96 or 24/88.2, I'm assuming. The problem is, for us this results in little benefit. AAC is still a lossy format. Starting with higher-quality masters will do very little for the sound quality unless Apple starts selling lossless files. This sounds more like gimmick than an actual commitment by Apple to high-quality music. But maybe they'll surprise us.

From Apple:

As technology advances and bandwidth, storage, battery life, and processor power increase, keeping the highest quality masters available in our systems allows for full advantage of future improvements to your music.

 

[grapemac]

If it really means an end to the Loudness war then it means "Mastered for iTunes" will become my first choice over buying a CD.

Will they also be replacing already-sold tunes for free if those get updated?

It seems so.

I had bought one song from one of the newly Mastered Beck albums when it was a plain ol' iTunes Plus album. The iTunes Plus version had blue artwork, the new Mastered version has pink artwork.

When I go to my Purchased history, the track I can download has pink artwork. I assume it's been upgraded free.

(As an extra note: earlier on I searched for this Beck song and - along with the new pink Mastered version of the album - the tracks from the blue version appeared in the search results but these songs brought up an error when I tried to look at/play them. I assume the transition was going on at that point and that the song has been upgraded free).

 

[808?]

いな

 

[japanime]

MacRumors is just pleasing their Japanese users. I think.

Yes, and we're appreciative of it. There are quite a few Japan-based Macrumors users.

And these announcements are truly groundbreaking. The Japanese music industry is notoriously tight-fisted. Kudos to Apple for getting these deals done!

 

[grapemac]

So Apple wants bands to give their music to Apple at 24/96 or 24/88.2, I'm assuming.

You don't need to assume anything, just read the PDF.

It's more than just being provided with a higher quality master. Apple are providing tools to distributors, setting standards for the type of quality they want and doing something to stop the loudness war.

 

[marcusj0015]

Not really. I remember reading a article about some classical music record company using algorithm to make CDs sound better. IN don't know the details, but it was something like they don't take the value at each sample, but look at the value before and after and decide on a better value.

So, yes, it is compressed and yes, sample rate is smaller than source, but if you encode intelligently, it will sound **better**.

That being said, purists, like descendants of kings that had great composers on retainer, will say that a full orchestra in the castle is the best. Followed by 8-track...

Cheers!

LOL 8-track. Why would I want one of thseo? lmfao

 

[BobbyRond]

It seems so.

I had bought one song from one of the newly Mastered Beck albums when it was a plain ol' iTunes Plus album. The iTunes Plus version had blue artwork, the new Mastered version has pink artwork.

When I go to my Purchased history, the track I can download has pink artwork. I assume it's been upgraded free.

(As an extra note: earlier on I searched for this Beck song and - along with the new pink Mastered version of the album - the tracks from the blue version appeared in the search results but these songs brought up an error when I tried to look at/play them. I assume the transition was going on at that point and that the song has been upgraded free).

Seems like they do charge you. In Japan anyway. 50¥ per song ($0.624). In the screenshot quoted below the mention is 30% of the original cost.

Makes me wonder what they'll do with iTunes Match. Will they give you the iTunes Plus version?

Holy **** Japan
Image

LOL 8-track. Why would I want one of thseo? lmfao

Some people still appreciate the warmth of the analog sound. I still have lots of friends who buy records in stead of CD's.

 

[haruhiko]

Please open the store in Hong Kong...

 

[grapemac]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

It seems so.

I had bought one song from one of the newly Mastered Beck albums when it was a plain ol' iTunes Plus album. The iTunes Plus version had blue artwork, the new Mastered version has pink artwork.

When I go to my Purchased history, the track I can download has pink artwork. I assume it's been upgraded free.

(As an extra note: earlier on I searched for this Beck song and - along with the new pink Mastered version of the album - the tracks from the blue version appeared in the search results but these songs brought up an error when I tried to look at/play them. I assume the transition was going on at that point and that the song has been upgraded free).

Seems like they do charge you. In Japan anyway. 50¥ per song ($0.624). In the screenshot quoted below the mention is 30% of the original cost.

Makes me wonder what they'll do with iTunes Match. Will they give you the iTunes Plus version?

Holy **** Japan
Image

LOL 8-track. Why would I want one of thseo? lmfao

Some people still appreciate the warmth of the analog sound. I still have lots of friends who buy records in stead of CD's.

The screenshot shows upgrades to iTunes Plus, not to Mastered for iTunes.

Everyone had to pay to upgrade to iTunes Plus, beginning in 2007.

Originally - 128kbps
2007 - iTunes Plus 256kbps
2011 - Mastered for iTunes began

 

[grapemac]

If it really means an end to the Loudness war then it means "Mastered for iTunes" will become my first choice over buying a CD.

Will they also be replacing already-sold tunes for free if those get updated?

Ignore my previous response to this. I was wrong; the Beck artwork is blue (and so from the old non-Mastered for iTunes version, I assume).

So, at the moment, it seems the only way to get the Mastered version of an album you already have is to buy it again.

 

[milo]

I would assume redownloading a remastered song would bring down the new version. Has anyone tested and been able to tell definitively? And I wonder about Match as well.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

But lossless will still sound like garbage if dynamic range compression was applied to the source material. From what I'm reading, "Mastered for iTunes" will fix that.

I'd rather get 256kbps AAC without dynamic range compression than lossless with dynamic range compression.

IDK, the one song that I've downloaded that was "Mastered for iTunes" is still pretty loud. Better than some songs, of course, but still with a small dynamic range.

Also, a lot of the offerings mirror the releases that we've seen on HDTracks, which are infamous for being shoddy, inconsistant mastering just with 96kHz/24-bit attached to it. The Elton John tracks, for example.

 

[199708]

So this is itunes plus, not itunes match right?.

if so, the waiting continues

 

[GenesisST]

LOL 8-track. Why would I want one of thseo? lmfao

You did see it as a joke, right? Please tell me that you did...

 

[petsounds]

You don't need to assume anything, just read the PDF.

It's more than just being provided with a higher quality master. Apple are providing tools to distributors, setting standards for the type of quality they want and doing something to stop the loudness war.

I didn't see a PDF yesterday Mr. Snarky, but I read it now.

If the sample rate of the source file is greater than 44.1 kHz, it’s downsampled to 44.1 kHz using our mastering-quality SRC. Next, it uses this newly rendered CAF to render a high quality AAC audio file.

Basically, they're taking a pristine 24/96 file and turning it into a AAC 256kps file. There's no magic pixie dust that will save the bitrate or sampling rate. It's marketing fluff. If Apple would just move to their lossless ALAC format, this would be a non-issue and everyone would win.

Having said that, the fact that Apple is providing tools to mastering engineers to see how the encoded file will sound is a good thing. And strongly "suggesting" that mastering engineers set a peak level of -1dBTP is also a good thing to avoid clipping. On the other hand, Apple has a whole diatribe in there about mastering for the audience (aka iPhone earbuds), which is a terrible idea. Music should be mastered for how the artist wants it to sound at its best, not what it will sound like on cheap headphones.

 

[marcusj0015]

You did see it as a joke, right? Please tell me that you did...

I thought it was srs bro. :/

 

[jenoki48]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Hi I'm Japanese user I waited for start of "iTunes in the cloud" ,
But I have issue on "purchased" music.
I bought an Album before ,
But does not appear all songs of that album.
Only 3 song appear but 8 songs in that album.

Is this issue only in Japanese iTunes store service?

 

[milo]

Basically, they're taking a pristine 24/96 file and turning it into a AAC 256kps file. There's no magic pixie dust that will save the bitrate or sampling rate.

Sure the encoded file is still lossy, but starting with a master that contains more detail does have the potential to yield a better result than a master with less detail. Obviously the amount of difference it makes depends on the encoding algorithm but an improvement certainly could be possible.

I doubt the 96k would make much if any difference (in general I think sample rates over 48 are a waste of time) but the extra bit depth can make a subtle but audible difference, particularly if mastering is done in a way that doesn't reduce the dynamic range so much. And don't forget, in the PDF they also talk about having the higher quality masters on file in case of future releases in a higher quality format.

 

[petsounds]

Sure the encoded file is still lossy, but starting with a master that contains more detail does have the potential to yield a better result than a master with less detail. Obviously the amount of difference it makes depends on the encoding algorithm but an improvement certainly could be possible.

As someone who has done their share of recording, I can go ahead and say that the difference between exporting from 16/44.1 and 24/96 to AAC and mp3 is hardly detectable, even with studio-grade speakers. The lossy compression just destroys too much of the original information.

I doubt the 96k would make much if any difference (in general I think sample rates over 48 are a waste of time) but the extra bit depth can make a subtle but audible difference, particularly if mastering is done in a way that doesn't reduce the dynamic range so much. And don't forget, in the PDF they also talk about having the higher quality masters on file in case of future releases in a higher quality format.

96kHz is definitely preferable to 48 or 44.1, at least in a lossless format. I can hear the difference -- in the musical "transients", the subtleties that make it sound alive -- even on my home theatre setup. But beyond 96, there's no "golden ears" on the planet that can hear a difference, and those that do are deluding themselves. I personally like to use 88.2 because it's an even multiple of the CD spec so you don't run into dither issues.

Of course to someone listening to music on earbuds, it's not going to sound much different either way, and the iDevices sadly can't play anything above 48kHz anyway.

I agree that Apple may be starting a process with the labels of transitioning to lossless distribution, or at least that's one possible scenario. Sites like Bandcamp really have the format distribution right -- offer the user their choice of format, whether lossless, AAC, etc.

You know, I feel bad for kids who grew up only listening to low-bitrate mp3s and music that is slammed beyond the limit; they've been a bit robbed of something beautiful and don't even know it, in the same way that kids growing up in big cities are robbed by only seeing a few stars in the sky. I hope that changes soon.