Is iTunes about to go high-resolution?
On Wednesday, Billboard reported that Apple was set to radically overhaul its music store in order to better compete with music streaming sites and internet radio stations. But as well as offering competing on-demand services and even an Android version of the iTunes app, a new report came to light on Friday that claims that Apple is about to go high resolution.
According to Robert Hutton, the company is planning to offer 24-bit, essentially lossless audio files at a one-dollar premium as a means of standing out from the crowd.
Although such technology is considered something only for audiophiles and therefore with a very limited appeal, anyone following Neil Young's Pono Kickstarter campaign -- $5.8 million in pledges and counting -- would beg to disagree.
In a blogpost first spotted by MacRumors, Hutton says that Apple is going to use the reissue of three re-mastered Led Zeppelin albums as the catalyst for launching the format and it could be announced as early as the World Wide Developers Conference in June.
Although all rumors should be taken with a pinch of salt, Apple already holds 24-bit masters of much of the content hosted on iTunes so from launch day would be able to offer a rather compelling and complete catalog of artists, albums and individual tracks.
