Next for Apple: Lossless iTunes Store

Lossless audio is the audiophile’s best friend, but the storage device’s worst enemy — it’s sonically identical to CD audio, but at the cost of massive file sizes. Until recently, lossless audio wasn’t an option for portable players. But now iPods come with up to 160GB of storage, lossless is a viable option for portable media, and pocketable audiophile earphones are within the reach of certain budgets (though of course iPods would surely be plugged into hi-fi equipment, too).

Most of his points are valid, but I still won’t buy an album unless it is available without DRM. I think another smart move for Apple would be to purchase Beatport, which has an extensive electronica catalog, and repackage the releases in Apple Lossless without Beatport’s $1 “WAV handling” fee. DJs would flock to iTunes if this ever happened. Another possibility is the introduction of advanced resolution recordings, such as 24-bit/96 kHz remasters. I have a few of these recordings on DVD-Audio, and there are others available on Super Audio CD (SACD). Both of these formats are dying due to lack of hardware support, and Apple could swoop in and steal part of the lucrative audiophile market.