Is it about time Apple(and Microsoft etc) supported FLAC?

[admin_exported]

Just reading about the latest in the line of music download sites, Passionato, and with some major brands from budget to high end taking on board the inevitable march away from the optical disk, with new metal (and plastic), is it not time that Apple (as the largest component in the portable market, and one of the biggest players in software media playback, supported what seems to be becoming the de facto (DRM free) standard for high quality downloads?)

Yes I know they have interests in keeping the iTunes store profitable, and such, but the only reason I can see them not supporting FLAC, is that they intend to implement DRM in ALAC? or?

Maybe I am way off the mark, but as more of these high quality download sights appear...and generally offer FLAC as their format of choice, then surely the biggest player/s in the media playback game should be on board?

 

[Anonymous]

The way I see it is it's just Apple doing what Apple do. They've developed their own lossless system which in many ways is more versatile than FLAC. They obviously have faith that their software is on average, demographically better than other software out there so people will choose their file formats.

Yes it would be much easier for us to have itunes support FLAC, but I can see where Apple are coming from It's time all the stubborn computer corners let their hair down for the sake of the consumer.

 

[John Duncan]

They need DRM for their iTunes/iPod paradigm to work (generalising), and ALAC allows them to do that, FLAC does not. That said, the player could support it easily enough, I'd imagine.

There's a petition somewhere............

 

[John Duncan]

Petition here.

Edit - But read this as well.

 

[Anonymous]

Signed, Sealed, Delivered.

 

[John Duncan]

See edited message......

 

[Anonymous]

Nothing interesting as far as I can see? Did I just spam myself to Timbuktu?

 

[John Duncan]

"Edit - But read this as well."

Interesting discussion about why it may or may not happen.

 

[Anonymous]

On a personal note, yes I would love for them to support FLAC in iTunes (could care a less what MS does at this point since switching 3 years ago). What I want even more though is for them to sell the music on the iTunes store in lossless format. I don't care all that much if they choose Apple Lossless or FLAC, but I've stopped buying music from them since I've upgraded a lot of my audio recently and am currently upgrading my main music room and can easily hear a huge difference from the AAC music from iTunes and the lossless music I've ripped - which I suppose to moreÿknowledgeableÿpeople is a duh statement, but still I was surprised at the difference as I was expecting a little difference but get annoyed listening to highly compressed music now. Would prefer them to use FLAC since its theÿde-factoÿstandard as you say but either way, MAX can convert it perfectly to my ears from FLAC to Apple Lossless and I'm sure there is a similar application for thoseÿgluttonsÿfor punishment using MS.ÿ

 

[Gerrardasnails]

mcd0234:On a personal note, yes I would love for them to support FLAC in iTunes (could care a less what MS does at this point since switching 3 years ago). What I want even more though is for them to sell the music on the iTunes store in lossless format. I don't care all that much if they choose Apple Lossless or FLAC, but I've stopped buying music from them since I've upgraded a lot of my audio recently and am currently upgrading my main music room and can easily hear a huge difference from the AAC music from iTunes and the lossless music I've ripped - which I suppose to moreÿknowledgeableÿpeople is a duh statement, but still I was surprised at the difference as I was expecting a little difference but get annoyed listening to highly compressed music now. Would prefer them to use FLAC since its theÿde-factoÿstandard as you say but either way, MAX can convert it perfectly to my ears from FLAC to Apple Lossless and I'm sure there is a similar application for thoseÿgluttonsÿfor punishment using MS.

http://www.linnrecords.com/linn-studio-master-downloads-itunes.aspx

http://www.simplehelp.net/2008/06/12/how-to-play-flac-files-in-itunes/

 

[John Duncan]

Gerrardasnails:mcd0234:On a personal note, yes I would love for them to support FLAC in iTunes (could care a less what MS does at this point since switching 3 years ago). What I want even more though is for them to sell the music on the iTunes store in lossless format. I don't care all that much if they choose Apple Lossless or FLAC, but I've stopped buying music from them since I've upgraded a lot of my audio recently and am currently upgrading my main music room and can easily hear a huge difference from the AAC music from iTunes and the lossless music I've ripped - which I suppose to moreÿknowledgeableÿpeople is a duh statement, but still I was surprised at the difference as I was expecting a little difference but get annoyed listening to highly compressed music now. Would prefer them to use FLAC since its theÿde-factoÿstandard as you say but either way, MAX can convert it perfectly to my ears from FLAC to Apple Lossless and I'm sure there is a similar application for thoseÿgluttonsÿfor punishment using MS.

http://www.linnrecords.com/linn-studio-master-downloads-itunes.aspx

http://www.simplehelp.net/2008/06/12/how-to-play-flac-files-in-itunes/

Yes buut do you want to play FLAC files in iTunes or do you want iTunes to import using FLAC? Big difference for me from a point of view of simple 'workflow', which is iTunes' big selling point for me.

 

[Anonymous]

JohnDuncan:Gerrardasnails:mcd0234:On a personal note, yes I would love for them to support FLAC in iTunes (could care a less what MS does at this point since switching 3 years ago). What I want even more though is for them to sell the music on the iTunes store in lossless format. I don't care all that much if they choose Apple Lossless or FLAC, but I've stopped buying music from them since I've upgraded a lot of my audio recently and am currently upgrading my main music room and can easily hear a huge difference from the AAC music from iTunes and the lossless music I've ripped - which I suppose to moreÿknowledgeableÿpeople is a duh statement, but still I was surprised at the difference as I was expecting a little difference but get annoyed listening to highly compressed music now. Would prefer them to use FLAC since its theÿde-factoÿstandard as you say but either way, MAX can convert it perfectly to my ears from FLAC to Apple Lossless and I'm sure there is a similar application for thoseÿgluttonsÿfor punishment using MS.http://www.linnrecords.com/linn-studio-master-downloads-itunes.aspxhttp://www.simplehelp.net/2008/06/12/how-to-play-flac-files-in-itunes/Yes buut do you want to play FLAC files in iTunes or do you want iTunes to import using FLAC? Big difference for me from a point of view of simple 'workflow', which is iTunes' big selling point for me.

ÿ

Its also a case of not having to "fanny about". I don't use iTunes, do use FLAC, and have downloaded FLAC. FLAC seems to be the standard.ÿ

Also, I would never ever pay for DRM'd music.ÿ

ÿ

 

[John Duncan]

FLAC is not a standard, not even close. Not saying that it shouldn't be, it just isn't.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the links, I have bought a few tracks from Linn which do sound great and are of course FLAC (and 24/96 to boot), I just wish they offered a larger selection but perhaps Linn/Music Giants/HD Tracks will offer a larger selection in the future. Point taken, I would certainly prefer iTunes to just accept the FLAC tracks without having to muck around converting them.

Since the higher quality downloads do seem to be most often in FLAC, it may not be an official standard but until iTunes or one of the larger companies usurp them by offering a complete catalog of high resolution music in a different format, FLAC is currently the most widespread format for lossless music so it would be nice for the most widely used software to support it natively. Perhaps a clever person somewhere will find a way to add the capability to iTunes because as much as I'd like Apple to add the function I can't see them being very enthusiastic about adding FLAC going by their past history.ÿ