Size of Apple Lossless Files

Question

Size of Apple Lossless Files

According to iTunes help, an Apple Lossless File should be about 5MB per minute of music. I am experiencing from 6.5MB to 7.5MB per minute. Is this related to a setting which is incorrect, the type of music I am importing, or is Apple simply wildly optimistic?

Posted on Sep 21, 2005 7:01 PM

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Answer 1

Rick Stone

Level 4

1,025 points

Sep 24, 2005 6:55 AM in response to Frank Morison

Your second reason--the type of music you're importing. Apple isn't far off, on average, but there can be a wide range of encoding rates, depending upon the complexity and nature of the source recording audio. Just look at the variable encoding rates on any full CD you might have imported. One that I have, for example, ranges from 678 to 982 kbps among its 13 tracks.

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Answer 2

Sep 24, 2005 11:55 PM in response to Frank Morison

Actually, in this case it's the third guess. Most music, when losslessly compressed, end up being about 60-70% of the original Wave file size, which translates to about 800-900kbps. Apple is once again wildly being optimistic, just like they do with their battery life.

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Answer 3

Sep 24, 2005 11:13 PM in response to Rick Stone

Thank-you Rick. 690kbps seems to be about the rate that produces a 5MB/min file. Unfortunately, about 90% of all tracks have bit rate that exceeds that level.

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