Lossy (mp3) tracks imported to Music on my Mac appear as Lossless on iOS devices but remain in original format on Mac

Question

Lossy (mp3) tracks imported to Music on my Mac appear as Lossless on iOS devices but remain in original format on Mac

There are actually two conundrums here: The first is that I recently purchased an album that was only available as a download on bleep.com as .mp3. i.e. not available to purchase on iTunes or available on Apple Music. The second thing is that once I'd purchased the album I imported it in to Music (version: 1.1.6.32) on my M1 Mac mini. Shortly after, the album appeared on my iPhone XR and iPad 8th gen as Lossless, but has remained only in the original lossy format on my Mac. So, two questions: how can Apple Music create a Lossless version of an album that is only available to buy, Lossy, from a third party vendor, and why is it only showing the Lossless version on my iOS devices?

iPhone SE, iOS 14

Posted on Aug 31, 2021 5:57 AM

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Answer 1

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turingtest2

Level 10

274,570 points

Aug 31, 2021 9:39 AM in response to GlobularFlark

Ah, a compilation album. I can find some of the same tracks in the UK Apple Music catalog, though by no means all. If the tracks have been matched by audio fingerprinting then it is conceivable that Apple have a lossless source for the music, and can present it on your iOS devices with your metadata. Is it every track from the album? If you create a new empty library on the Mac and enable sync library are you able to stream or download any of the tracks in lossless?

tt2

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

274,570 points

Aug 31, 2021 7:19 AM in response to GlobularFlark

Perhaps Music in iOS is confused about the lossless status of these tracks. Are they downloaded to the devices and can you compare the file size to the size in Music on the Mac? Settings > General > Storage > Music > Artists... should give you album sizes on the device.

tt2

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Answer 3

Aug 31, 2021 8:15 AM in response to turingtest2

I think Music in iOS is very confused. I just went in to General > iPhone Storage > Music > Artists and the songs in question do not appear there, even though they have been downloaded (confirmed). Anyway I can tell the difference between lossy and lossless audio, and that album is downloaded as Lossless. I just noticed that a Software Update for Big Sur is available so I will install that and report back here.

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Answer 4

Aug 31, 2021 10:25 PM in response to turingtest2

So there is a difference in file sizes, but only for a couple of the tracks. The track 'Have No Fear' is 9,4 MB on my Mac, but is 20,9 MB on my iPhone. 'Birthday 026' is 12,9 MB on the Mac, but 42,7 MB on the iPhone.

Conversely, 'Hugs' [Cathode Rmx] is 15,1 MB on the Mac, but is 13,7 MB on the iPhone. 'The Ends [Am/Pm Rmx]' is 16,2 MB on the Mac, but 16,1 MB on the iPhone.

I created a new Music library with cloud sync enabled, and the album still shows as 320 kbps. I live in Germany, and my Apple ID is based in Germany.

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Answer 5

Sep 1, 2021 6:22 AM in response to turingtest2

Ok, so you were right with your earlier guess; Apple has matched three ot the tracks, 'Have No Fear', 'Birthday 026', and 'Hugs [Cathode Rmx]‘ show as 'Matched'/Losslessin song info on the Mac. The rest show as 'Uploaded'. and remain in their original quality of 320kbps. So it's somewhat a case of false advertising on Apple's part, they matched three songs from an album, and (on the iOS app at least), they badge the entire album as Lossless. Thanks for your help with this!

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