How to make Music app behave more consistently when downloading purchased music?

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Level 1

46 points

How to make Music app behave more consistently when downloading purchased music?

The Music app is behaving very inconsistently when downloading purchased music to my MacBook Pro and iMac, particularly when lossless audio is available.

Sometimes it will download the standard purchased AAC files (44.1 kHz/256 kbps/m4a).

Sometimes it will download HLS files (lossless/.movpkg).

Sometimes it will download a mix of the two formats.

This brings up several questions:

• What determines which file format will be downloaded?

• Why aren't the downloaded lossless files in the same Apple Lossless (ALAC/m4a) format used when extracting audio from CDs?

• Why is a mix of the two formats (i.e., some songs in AAC, some in HLS) sometimes downloaded when purchasing an album?

• When an album is available for purchase in lossless format, why isn't a choice given as to which format will be purchased or downloaded? Some of the other services offering lossless/high-definition audio formats give the buyer a choice—either of format (for example, MP3/AAC/FLAC/WAV), or sample rate and resolution.

If an Apple representative has answers to these questions, I'd love to hear them.

One more thing…

Sometimes, regardless of format, the app will split up an album into two or more parts; the only way to consistently get the Music app to treat them as a single album is to copy the files to a folder on the desktop and then reimport them into Music.

What's up with that?

Thanks,

Creoirtronk

MacBook Pro (2020 and later)

Posted on Oct 29, 2021 12:37 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

ed2345

Level 9

62,936 points

Oct 29, 2021 4:47 AM in response to Creoirtronk

• When an album is available for purchase in lossless format, why isn't a choice given as to which format will be purchased or downloaded? Some of the other services offering lossless/high-definition audio formats give the buyer a choice—either of format (for example, MP3/AAC/FLAC/WAV), or sample rate and resolution.

Creo,

The iTunes Store does not have any songs or albums "available for purchase" in lossless format.

The lossless offering from Apple is for the streaming service, not for the iTunes Store. Subscribers can download lossless tracks for offline listening, and they will be valid as long as your subscription is active. But the Store does not offer unprotected lossless tracks to purchase. That is why you are not seeing ALAC.

See further info here:

About lossless audio in Apple Music - Apple Support

You are correct that other music download stores offer lossless downloads or even hi-res downloads.

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Answer 2

Creoirtronk Author

Level 1

46 points

Oct 29, 2021 9:09 AM in response to ed2345

Well, yes. Techinically.

But I have purchased albums from the iTunes Music Store over the last 2 or 3 months where the only files that downloaded to my computer were HLS files—and, regardless of how many times (and methods) I tried to download the standard AAC files (because I like to burn my purchased albums to CD in case I run into problems with the drive on which my music files are stored—because the availability of albums on the iTunes Music Store has been known to change), some or all of the songs were downloaded in the HLS/movpkg format.

Which means that, in those instances, Apple is providing me with lossless media when I purchase an album. And the Music app does not allow songs downloaded in lossless format to be burned to CD.

Which is part of why I ask the question about making the Music app behave more consistently when it comes to downloading purchased music, so that I get what I'm paying for.

ed2345 wrote:

• When an album is available for purchase in lossless format, why isn't a choice given as to which format will be purchased or downloaded? Some of the other services offering lossless/high-definition audio formats give the buyer a choice—either of format (for example, MP3/AAC/FLAC/WAV), or sample rate and resolution.

Creo,

The iTunes Store does not have any songs or albums "available for purchase" in lossless format.

The lossless offering from Apple is for the streaming service, not for the iTunes Store. Subscribers can download lossless tracks for offline listening, and they will be valid as long as your subscription is active. But the Store does not offer unprotected lossless tracks to purchase. That is why you are not seeing ALAC.

See further info here:

About lossless audio in Apple Music - Apple Support

You are correct that other music download stores offer lossless downloads or even hi-res downloads.

Reply

Answer 3

ed2345

Level 9

62,936 points

Oct 29, 2021 3:36 PM in response to Creoirtronk

Creo,

"And the Music app does not allow songs downloaded in lossless format to be burned to CD" is only true if the songs came from Apple. If you download lossless files from the other sources (that you are aware of), and add them to your Music library, they will burn just fine.

As far as getting the unprotected non-lossless versions of songs from the iTunes Store, I don't have a subscription to experiment, but doesn't the "Select lossless audio quality when downloading" option help with that?

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Answer 4

Creoirtronk Author

Level 1

46 points

Oct 29, 2021 5:09 PM in response to ed2345

Yes, "Select lossless audio quality when downloading" does apply when downloading music from the subscription service to listen to offline. And that part is fine (though I avoid using it, because I don't want the files taking up space on my drive if I haven't bought the album).

The problem I have run into is that, sometimes when I purchase an album from iTunes, and the purchased songs are downloaded to my Mac, I end up with a mix of those lossless files and the standard purchased AAC files. Because the HLS formatted songs can't be burned to CD, I effectively end up with an incomplete album for which I have paid the full download price.

This is why I want to find out if anyone knows how to make the Music app behave the way it is supposed to.

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Answer 5

Nov 11, 2021 8:45 PM in response to Creoirtronk

Not sure why this question hasn't been answered properly by anyone in tech support but as an alternative question, why does an error occur when trying to convert these HLS formatted songs into any other format so that they can be played, for example, on a car stereo via usb thumb drive?

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Answer 6

Nov 12, 2021 2:35 AM in response to sdparklaw

Hi,

You can’t convert HLS tracks as they are protected.

If you purchase music from iTunes Store, the tracks can be downloaded as 256 Kbps which can be burned to disc. Playback settings can be set to download Lossless or hi-res with Apple Music subscription. Not all purchases are available to download as lossless or hi-res.

With matched tracks you can get Lossless on some tracks but not on others. Problem with matching process??

Jim

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Answer 7

Nov 12, 2021 2:54 AM in response to Jimzgoldfinch

Thanks, Jim. Since posting my question, I discovered a work around that might help others. If I delete the HLS download, then redownload the track in, say, AAC format, I can then transfer a playable copy to a thumb drive, then delete that AAC download and re-redownload the HLS again for high res playback in iTunes.

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How to make Music app behave more consistently when downloading purchased music?

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