Music producers will bring sweeter sounds to the discriminating Apple Music user thanks to a new digital masters initiative for Apple’s burgeoning streaming service.
As Apple phases out iTunes with the launch of a new macOS, it will fold in all Mastered for iTunes tracks and high-definition Apple Music songs into one catalog.
News of the new Apple Digital Masters was first reported today by the music industry news service, Billboard.
The news site noted that Apple quietly phased in the new Apple Digital Masters catalog. Apple made no mention of it in the “Newsroom” section of its website.
Apple launched Mastered for iTunes in 2012 as a way to increase sales with high-quality song files. The program gave sound engineers guidelines and free software to fine-tune tracks and hear how the music will sound once encoded by Apple.
Apple charged more for the master tracks, which were found in a separate section of the iTunes app.
According to Billboard, more than 70 percent of the top releases on Apple Music are already Apple Digital Masters.
Other streaming services, including Tidal, Qobuz and Deezer, offer studio-quality tracks. Spotify has experimented with offering lossless audio tracks.
