iTunes Album Purchases into Lossless

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iTunes Album Purchases into Lossless

I have a specific example that applies to a lot of people right now. I used to buy music albums from iTunes until Apple finally came out with Apple Music. But now we have a new era of Lossless music where we run into old problems. Do I have to delete an album I purchased from iTunes, and then add it via Apple Music, to be able to get the lossless version?

Example, I bought Nothing Was The Same by Drake in 2013. Whenever I play a song on the album it doesn’t show any lossless/ hi-res/ Apple digital master even though it is playing via cloud and not download. When I search for it on Apple Music and then play it, it gives me the lossless option. So do I have to add every single song again pre-Apple Music era, i.e, re add music I have purchased? It just seems tedious work to do and punishing people who bought music.

How can I make a smart playlist that adds all music that is not from Apple Music? Or similarly, how can I make a smart playlist that adds all songs before a certain “added on xx/xx/xxxx date”?

It just seems like we have to add all the songs we had before apple music again.

Posted on Jun 8, 2021 10:37 PM

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Answer 1

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ed2345

Level 9

62,828 points

Jun 9, 2021 5:29 AM in response to boredmkbhd

Hello Boredmkbhd,

"Punishing" is a bit of a stretch, since whatever you bought and paid for still works as it did when you bought it. However, you are correct that the new lossless option is only for Apple Music subscriptions, and does not apply to purchases in the iTunes Store.

If you are an Apple Music subscriber you can download lossless copies of the exact same tracks that you already have. But you can also download any of the other 10s of millions of tracks that are available.

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Answer 2

boredmkbhd Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 9, 2021 10:08 AM in response to Space Ranger

Close, but not exactly it. Doing it this method I lose about 200-800 songs that still need to be added as an Apple Music song (since I paid for it via iTunes/CD/ other). I think the best way to do this is to do a smart playlist and click Date Added is before (and then enter in the first day you paid for Apple Music). But even doing it this way I still have albums that I bought from iTunes (Location is on my iTunes Media under File settings from get info on song) and when I remove the download on those, and then redownload, it doesn't convert to lossless. It strictly wants the Apple Music version irregardless if the cloud status is Apple Music.

So how can I make a smart playlist that shows all songs location is under iTunes media? The only option I see is Location is on this computer/ iCloud and that's not specific enough to the iTunes location that would help a lot more so.

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Answer 3

ed2345

Level 9

62,828 points

Jun 9, 2021 2:35 PM in response to boredmkbhd

So how can I make a smart playlist that shows all songs location is under iTunes media? The only option I see is Location is on this computer/ iCloud and that's not specific enough to the iTunes location that would help a lot more so.

The possible values for Location are what you saw. There is not a way in Smart Playlist logic to distinguish between a song that is in the Media folder versus somewhere else on your computer.

If you want to identify your purchased tracks, wouldn't "Kind" "contains" "Purchased" do the trick?

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Answer 4

boredmkbhd Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 11, 2021 8:59 PM in response to ed2345

The only thing that worked was doing a filter where I found all the songs I had pre-Apple Music era. I got Apple Music almost immediately after it was available but just went ahead and filtered in all songs that were added before 2016. But even still some songs that I did get from Apple Music had to be deleted and added again to get the Lossless version. I couldn't figure out why. I thought it was because the location of the song was in an old iTunes folder but it was not always the case.

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Answer 5

Jun 13, 2021 2:28 PM in response to boredmkbhd

You should be able to filter between Purchased, Imported, and Apple Music.

Though I do not understand why the response that "Apple Recommended" was in fact recommended, because as we now know with Apple Music making most of the catalog lossless, means; and even when artists add a record or song to iTunes/Apple Music they must supply a certain file type, sample rate, and bit rate; so this SHOULD apply to past purchases towards lossless or even high-res lossless as the source is already there on the backend. As it's no different to when they made AAC 256Kbps available, even for a nominal upgrade fee.

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Answer 6

ed2345

Level 9

62,828 points

Jun 13, 2021 4:32 PM in response to Space Ranger

so this SHOULD apply to past purchases towards lossless or even high-res lossless as the source is already there on the backend.

Space Ranger,

You are certainly entitled to your opinion about what "should" apply. However, at the moment, Apple is offering lossless tracks as part of the Apple Music streaming service. They are not offering lossless tracks in the iTunes Store. We cannot predict what they will offer in the future.

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Answer 7

Jun 13, 2021 4:53 PM in response to ed2345

ed2345 wrote:

Space Ranger,

You are certainly entitled to your opinion about what "should" apply. However, at the moment, Apple is offering lossless tracks as part of the Apple Music streaming service. They are not offering lossless tracks in the iTunes Store. We cannot predict what they will offer in the future.

OK

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Answer 8

MichaloM

Level 1

5 points

Jul 5, 2021 1:43 PM in response to boredmkbhd

Maybe someone can explain this to me. I can see "Lossless" on some purchased albums, but in the song details it looks like a regular AAC. I don't have AM.

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Answer 9

Jun 9, 2021 6:33 AM in response to boredmkbhd

On your Mac, you can create a Smart Playlist using any of the following to differentiate:

Purchased:

Cloud Status – is – Purchased

Purchased – is true

Apple Music:

Cloud Status – is – Apple Music

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Answer 10

boredmkbhd Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 9, 2021 9:59 AM in response to ed2345

I have to add over 1,000 different songs to get the lossless audio. So I will essentially have 2 copies of over 1,000 songs just to have lossless because I paid for them.

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Answer 11

Solty34

Level 1

13 points

Jul 5, 2021 3:50 PM in response to MichaloM

It could just be a bug of some sort. But maybe with people complaining they will add lossless music purchases to iTunes maybe I’m sure that would be welcomed.

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iTunes Album Purchases into Lossless

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