Apple today launched iTunes Plus, DRM-free music tracks featuring high quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings—for $1.29 per song. iTunes Plus is launching with EMI’s digital catalog of recordings, including singles and albums from Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra, Joss Stone, Pink Floyd, John Coltrane and more than a dozen of Paul McCartney’s classic albums available on iTunes for the first time.
iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog, currently over five million songs, in the same versions as today—128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM—at the same price of 99 cents per song, alongside the higher quality iTunes Plus versions when available. In addition, iTunes customers can now easily upgrade their library of previously purchased EMI content to iTunes Plus tracks for just 30 cents a song and $3.00 for most albums.
“Our customers are very excited about the freedom and amazing sound quality of iTunes Plus,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “We expect more than half of the songs on iTunes will be offered in iTunes Plus versions by the end of this year.”
“This is a tremendous milestone for digital music,” said Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group, in the press release. “Consumers are going to love listening to higher quality iTunes Plus tracks from their favorite EMI artists with no usage restrictions.”
With the release of iTunes Plus, customers can now download tracks from their favorite EMI artists without limitations on the type of music player or number of computers that purchased songs can be played on. iTunes is also offering customers a simple, one-click option to easily upgrade their library of previously purchased EMI content to the iTunes Plus versions. EMI music videos are now also available in iTunes Plus versions with no change in price. iTunes Plus songs purchased from the iTunes Store will play on all iPods, Mac or Windows computers, widescreen TVs with Apple TV and soon iPhones, as well as many other digital music players.
The iTunes Store features the world’s largest catalog with over five million songs, 350 television shows and over 500 movies. The iTunes Store has sold over 2.5 billion songs, 50 million TV shows and over two million movies, making it the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store.
More info at Apple’s iTunes Store here.
MacDailyNews Note: The first time you buy an iTunes Plus song, you specify whether to make all future purchases iTunes Plus versions (when available). You can change this setting by accessing your account information on the iTunes Store. To change your account information: In iTunes, choose Store > View My Account. Click the “Manage iTunes Plus” button. Click the checkbox for “Always show me iTunes Plus music and music videos when available.”
Pretty cool, I’m glad the quality is finally better. Too bad most of the stuff I like or have bought is non-EMI. I like what Trent Reznor is doing, releasing the tracks as garageband projects for remixes.
Good, now I can narrow down all the music I really really like and upgrade to the higher quality DRM free format for my hi-fi system.
Oh wait, it’s just EMI, damm.
Apple – test for vunerabilites before release!
So to the untrained ear, what is the real difference between 256 and 128kbps? The iTunes songs that I’ve downloaded sound fine.
The highler bit-rate songs are nowhere to be found. Catalogs of bands like Coldplay and Pink Floyd are still listed as $0.99….
M@c,
Get a CD. Rip one song at maximum bit rate (320), and rip the same one at 128. Play the two versions back to back. The high resolution one will sound smoother, sweeter, more musical and will be a more esthetically pleasing experience.
I appreciate the improvement they are making in fidelity, but it still can’t compete with my Sony ES SACD player.
I’ll admit that it’s hard to lug 75 pounds worth of components around town.
What do they mean by one-click upgrade? I hope they give me the choice as to what I want to upgrade. I don’t want a one-time upgrade all option. That might be expensive depending on how many songs are eligible to be upgraded.
Nuge,
Your statement may be correct if:
1. You are a professional musician, or a recording engineer/producer with years (decades) of experience, and;
2. You do the ripping (encoding) Apple’s iTunes software, which is consumer-grade, free AAC encoder, and;
3. You are listening to your results with a high-quality D-A converters on a studio-quality reference amplifier and studio monitors.
Apple uses its proprietary software for encoding. The encoding is definitely not quite as fast as in iTunes (3 – 5 x real time on a Core Duo). The resulting AAC file has much better audio quality than what you get from iTunes.
Bottom line, if you buy AAC from Apple, you will NOT hear the difference between 128 and 256kbps. Especially not on your iPod and its Harman-Kardon earbuds.
Just how do you identify songs which you have already purchased that can be upgraded to the higher bitrate DRM-free version? Is there a setting which will list the songs which can be upgraded?
I love my iMac but i never wanted to have iPod because the 128 kbs AAC music was not good enough for my audiophile ears. Until Now!
No DRM, and 256 kbs AAC, WOW !! I am getting ready to get my first iPod !!!!
macDave
You don’t have to lug 75 pounds to hear SACD just buy a Korg MR-1 and you are set, it weights the same as a small bag of M&Ms; and it is the size of a pack of cigarrettes and you are set. the best sounding gear on earth for $500
Just a note for the non-audiophiles here.
You’re going to need better ‘phones than the standard cheapo ‘buds to hear the difference. My faves are Koss’ PortaPro headphones and Shure’s E3c in-ear buds. Grado headphones are also killer, though a little bulkier. With good-quality ‘phones/’buds like these, higher-rez files will have a little more sparkle in the treble and a little more bomp in the bass, and vocals and solos will sound smoother and more present.
Still no contest vs. a CD on good speakers, but a worthwhile improvement in my book. I buy CDs and rip ’em at 320kbps.
there is a very noticeable difference between 128 and 256, especially 320 (if only). I personally try to download all my music at 320 or as high as possible. The listening experience is greatly enhanced especially if played loud or through earphones. I would no doubt pay the extra 30c for 256k.
If you enjoy to hear the intricacies of music which I especially enjoy since I am into electronic music where there are lots of sublte effects used then a higher bitrate greatly exacerbates them.
I will avoid 128k at all costs, it is very raw and doesn’t have any warmth to it.
NOTE: Steve Jobs states, “We expect more than half of the songs on iTunes will be offered in iTunes Plus versions by the end of this year.”
Sounds like more deals are in the wind….
MacNut,
You’ve always been able to use 256 AAC, or even higher quality Apple Lossless for all your cds. You don’t have to use the iTunes store to get your music for your ipod. Only about 6% the music on my ipod comes from the ITMS.
Ok. Am I the only one who doesn’t see an option to upgrate existing tracks to the new iTunes plus format?
just bought an album.
No, Alec. I think the store is still going live.
Upgrade my songs just showed up. Go to the iTunes Plus screen and look in the upper right hand corner. It will give you an upgrade option.
“So to the untrained ear, what is the real difference between 256 and 128kbps? The iTunes songs that I’ve downloaded sound fine.” —M@c
To the untrained ear, the difference is very, very slight. That’s the practical truth, no matter what you hear from “the experts.” Unless you personally can hear the differences they claim to hear, the whole issue is irrelevant to you, the listener.
If you have never owned the CD and you’re only source is the 128 kbps download from iTunes, then that download is lossless to you. You really can’t be sure what you’re missing until you’ve actually listened to the high resolution file.
For many (including myself), downloads on iTunes are done after hearing songs on the radio and TV. Believe me that iTunes music sounds much better than FM and my TV.
It very easy to tell the difference when listening to your iPod on a stereo system at any decent volume. I don’t have a kick butt stereo, just a very basic one, and it’s easy to hear the glistening in the cymbals of a 128kbps track.
– DT
So are the album prices for regular and iTunes Plus albums the same?? That’s pretty sahweet!
Majikthize,
Why don’t you try a pair of Grado SR-60 or SR-80. They have been widley hailed as the best VALUE in headphones on the market. Sure, they’ll be a bit bigger than the Koss, but they have more comfortable ear pads and the level of musicality is amazing for anything around $60 to $90.
The “free downloads” in iTunes show as $.99 in my shopping cart!! Does anyone else have this problem?
I’ve been mixing and mastering one up coming CD for about a month > lot of bounces from Logic to iTunes. There is definitely a difference from the original master to CD quality but no real diffrence between the CD and AAC 128k. Record company such as EMI has the master “tapes” and can use higher quality encoders so I think most people can’t hear quality difference between 128/256/CD especially if you have pre-90’s CDs that have not been digitally mastered. It also depends a lot of what kind of music we are talking about. Studio recordings are made up to 192k sampling rates (CD=44.1k) and when you have that good source material even mp3 can sound good.
I’ll probably try it. I know at 128 kbps I’ve heard distortion from bass and had other sound artifacts, so hopefully this means cleaner sounding tracks.
b,
Yes, of course you are right. All of this time, i have been using Sony HD5 (which is superior sound wise) and I have been using 256 kbs Atracplus for all my CDs. However, I always wish i could pick and buy only songs that i like (without DRM) in high quality format. I found 256 kbs is the middle ground between quality and quantity *(HD space). I just can not go for lower bit rate.
Having said that, if i really like the music and the artist, i almost always buy the CD in the end.
Anybody who is trying to argue that 128 kbs and 256 kbs are un-noticeable. Please don’t bother. Some people just don’t hear the difference and some do (like me).
Okay, just bought my first Plus album, and it’s a steal — individual tracks for $1.29, but they’ve got the entire album (Faure Requiem and Orchestral Music) for only $7.99! It’s like buying the Requiem and getting the rest of the music free.
Not sure if I’ll upgrade all my music (it’d cost $140), but I’m at least interested in upgrading the classical collections — I’d probably hear most of the difference there…
Okay, problem number 1 is that it’s taking forever to download…the servers may be overloaded… grrrr
Just to echo what some others have said, most people aren’t going to notice a difference between 128 and 250, but if you’re going to listen with even half decent headphones or speakers then 250 could offer an improvement. Also if you want to burn audio CDs from your purchased music then clearly 250Kbps should make produce a better CD.
Many people are still making the mistake of talking about tracks ripped from their CDs at 128Kbps as though that’s exactly the same quality as iTunes Store purchases when it’s not. I’ve often been pleasantly surprised by the quality of my iTunes purchases and they do tend to sound a bit better than the tracks I’ve ripped from CD at the same bit-rate. If you encode from a better quality source than a CD and you do so with a pro encoder instead of iTunes, then you’ll get better results and that’s what I assume is happening with music on the iTS. There is not one leven of quality with any given bit-rate, you must take into account the source and the encoder which can make all the difference. Also some people are still talking about bit-rates across different codecs as though they are all equal when they aren’t.
I can remember listening to my tape player, a panasonic personal stereo (like a walkman only better) and I thought that sounded pretty good until I started listening to more CDs but the little panasonic player was convenient. It was highly rated for sound quality by the Hi-Fi magazines but thanks to my iPod and AAC I now realise how flat the Panasonic player sounded. I rip my CDs at a minimum rate of 192kbps with VBR which does give me a noticeable improvement in sound quality over my 128kbps ripped ones. Digital music is about a balance between convenience and quality. I don’t really have problem with my iTunes Store downloads so I won’t upgrade many but I will upgrade some just to show support for the DRM-free and higher quality downloads.
We do all have an opportunity to send a message to the music industry by buying or upgrading at least one song.
I just realised that another benefit of DRM-free downloads is that we can more easily use the music in our iLife productions.
After installing Itunes today I have one new problem. My ipod will no longer accept mp3s that i ripped from CDs made from ITMS bought songs. I’ve done this with almost all of my ITMS bought songs so i can play them in my car’s mp3 player.
Seems like they took away the upgrade option! I was trying to upgrade my music and was getting error messages and now there is no option at all..
????
I still see an upgrade option when I visit my ‘iTunes Plus’ page but the store is clearly struggling with all the traffic it’s getting at the moment. I suppose it’s not just people visiting, buying and previewing but the fact that the ‘Plus’ tracks will clearly eat up more bandwidth.
Anyway I’m sure normal service will soon return when things have calmed down.
“Seems like they took away the upgrade option!”
I doubt it. I got the same error today, but they are probably taxing the system on the first day with people like us.
Woo baby! Listening to LCD Soundsystem just purchased from iTunes Plus. A little better quality for the same $9.99 price as the HANDCUFFED version at 128 kbps. I’ve been waiting for this album ever since Apple/EMI announcement. Watch the rest of the record companies fall like dominoes!
That’s what I’m talkin’ bout!!
MW: easy – you bet it was!
There are natural differences between people, the ears are different. Majority of people don’t hear slight sound differences. Frequency range is different for different ears as well. Those happened to get born with music ears can really hear details and higher frequences like 20KHz for example. The difference between 128K and 256K is not what you traditionally would expect when comparing CD to audiotape, for instance. The frequency range is the same, there would be no jammed tape sound interruptions or mechanic driven harmonic distortions. Most of the music details are still there, that’s why Apple is selling 128K by the way. But there are really microscopic sound details that can make sound soft or hard and this is normally the difference: 128K sounds significantly more “metallic” then “sweet” 256K if you play it back to back. The lab tests have actually proved that most of the pretty advanced music ears don’t distinguish the difference between MP3 256K and standard CD 1411K. So 320K is already little bit from the area of paranoia
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> Obviously, as hard disk space is getting cheaper and cheaper, it would be pretty much ok to store the 1411K CD quality in the near future, or at least Apple Lossless bitrate. At least couple of years ago 192K was considered industry standard reasonable compromise between the sound quality and file size.
By the way, iTunes encoder is really good – Apple is packaging completely professional subroutines into their consumer software code.
The upgrade section stinks. Some of these tracks I sampled before going out and actually buying the CD, so why am I being forced to pay an extra 30 cents to upgrade when I can burn them as AIFF’s? They need to allow you to choose which tracks you want to upgrade.
apple should have gone all the way and offerd lossless as an option. too bad. all my files are in lossless and have more deepth and and the image quality of the musicians in space and other psycho-acoustic cues which can re-create a live performance are more vivid are rely on higher bit rates.
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