Is Apple’s ITunes Store Lossless?

Answer - NO.

In an earlier post - iTunes lossless, too? - Apple Community

It states that although the iTunes Store doesn’t offer lossless downloads you can purchase these elsewhere at places like Bandcamp.com & upload them to Apple Music (if you also pay for Apple’s iTunes Match subscription). It’s here I wanted to clarify things for readers - iTunes Match is fantastic in so many regards except for perhaps in one area where it really lets you down.

In ITunes Match, lossless audio is only available (given to uploads) of songs/ albums that already exist in the Apple Music Streaming catalog. If your song or album is not in the catalog - your lossless album is downgraded to Apple’s AAC/256kbps file format during the matching process (this is the format Apple previously used for Apple Music). And whilst, AAC is in fact an excellent music format, one far superior to say Spotify’s MP3 320kbps format - it is still a large step down from lossless, which is recorded at 1,144 kbps.

Nevertheless, for the vast majority of music users - who listen to music on contemporary music players like phones or iPads using wireless speakers; and AirPod like headphones, the truth is that it’s highly unlikely that you’ll ever be able to tell the difference.

Unless music is a real passion or hobby of yours, one that you’ve willingly invested a considerable amount of time and money in; for example, I listen to music on a headphone system worth over $10,000US - the difference is noticeable. The truth is, the sound from a HiFi system like mine and a normal telephone & AirPods setup is like night and day. Both are extremely enjoyable but both offer very different experiences.