MasteredForItunes
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AC/DC releases full catalog to iTunes Store
For those about to buy the entire AC/DC catalog mastered for iTunes, we salute you. Every album from the classic Aussie hard rock band, about to celebrate 40 years as a successful act, is now available on the iTunes Store around the world. Two collections are available: The Collection (US$99.99), which includes all AC/DC studio albums, and The Complete Collection ($149.99) with all studio albums, live albums and box sets. If you're just a fan of a single AC/DC tune, you can purchase it in the same "Mastered for iTunes" digital format. The full press release from Apple and Columbia Records is listed below. Show full PR text AC/DC Now on iTunes AC/DC's Complete Catalog Available Digitally for the First Time; All Tracks Mastered for iTunes NEW YORK and CUPERTINO, California-November 19, 2012-Columbia Records and Apple® today announced that AC/DC's entire catalog is now available digitally for the first time exclusively on the iTunes Store® worldwide (www.itunes.com). From their 1976 debut High Voltage to seminal classic Back In Black and 2008 smash hit Black Ice, every one of AC/DC's 16 studio albums, along with four live albums and three compilation albums, are available for the first time ever on the iTunes Store. All tracks are Mastered for iTunes®, and fans have the ability to download full albums or simply purchase their favorite individual songs. Fans can also choose from two specially packaged digital compilations: The Complete Collection, the complete iTunes-exclusive AC/DC catalog; and The Collection, which includes all 16 studio albums. AC/DC's thunderous and primal rock and roll has excited fans for generations with their raw and rebellious brand of music, which also resonates with millions of new fans discovering AC/DC everyday. Their growing legion of fans will now experience the intensity of AC/DC's music in a way it has never been heard before. AC/DC's music has been Mastered for iTunes, ensuring the music is delivered to listeners with increased audio fidelity, more closely replicating what the artists, recording engineers and producers intended. The full catalog which has all been Mastered for iTunes includes: Collections The Collection (all studio albums for $99.99) The Complete Collection (all studio albums, live albums and box sets for $149.99) 16 Studio Albums High Voltage (1976) Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1976) Let There Be Rock (1977) Powerage (1978) Highway To Hell (1979) Back In Black (1980) For Those About To Rock We Salute You (1981) Flick Of The Switch (1983) 74 Jailbreak (1984) Fly On The Wall (1985) Who Made Who (1986) Blow Up Your Video (1988) The Razors Edge (1990) Ballbreaker (1995) Stiff Upper Lip (2000) Black Ice (2008) 4 Live Albums If You Want Blood You've Got It (1978) Live (1992) Live (2 Volume Collector's Edition) (1992) Live At River Plate (2012) 3 Compilation Albums Bonfire (1997) Backtracks audio (2009) Iron Man 2 soundtrack (2010) The iTunes Store is the world's most popular music store with a catalog of over 26 million songs and over 20 billion songs downloaded, and is available in 63 countries. The iTunes Store is the best way for iPhone®, iPad®, iPod®, Mac® and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music online. All music on the iTunes Store comes in iTunes Plus®, Apple's DRM-free format with high-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings. iTunes in the Cloud lets you download your previously purchased iTunes music to all your iOS devices at no additional cost, and new music purchases can be downloaded automatically to all your devices. Columbia Records is one of the most respected and successful record labels in the world, and is home to established superstars and exciting new talent. Columbia Records is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment. Sony Music Entertainment is a global recorded music company with a roster of current artists that includes a broad array of both local artists and international superstars. The company boasts a vast catalog that comprises some of the most important recordings in history. Sony Music Entertainment is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.
Daily Update for April 30, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Ars explores music "mastered for iTunes"
Ars Technica's Infinite Loop blogger Chris Foresman took a detailed look into the world of modern sound engineering to determine if Apple's Mastered for iTunes program really does improve sound quality of songs that are remastered. The answer to the question of what sounds better ends up being as varied as the opinions of the sound engineers Foresman talked to. Recording engineer Ian Shepard told CE Pro that the process of mastering audio files for iTunes to make them sound more CD-like was "BS" and that Mastered for iTunes is just "marketing hype." Foresman enlisted the assistance of two engineers from Chicago Mastering Service who were initially skeptical about improving the sound quality of the digital files, but came away with the conclusion that "it absolutely is possible to improve the quality of compressed iTunes Plus tracks with a little bit of work, that Apple's improved compression process does result in a better sound, and that 24/96 files aren't a good format for consumers." We won't divulge all of the processes that Foresman and the sound engineers went through, but the results were fascinating. In the end, though, it all boils down to how the iTunes listener hears the music. To quote Scott Hull, the CEO of sound studio Masterdisk, "The end consumer doesn't listen like an objective scientist or robot; the end consumer listens one hundred percent emotionally."
Apple introduces Mastered For iTunes tracks
Apple's trying to differentiate iTunes from its competitors with a new "Mastered for iTunes" section that's filled with high-fidelity, ear-pleasing music. These tracks are processed using a set of guidelines and tools that'll maintain as much of the sound quality of the original, uncompressed file as possible. As Ars Technica points out, most modern music tracks are recorded using 24-bit samples at 96 kHz or 192 kHz, depending on the processing power and storage space of the system. iTunes files are then compressed to a 256 kbps AAC "iTunes Plus" format, which loses 97 percent of the data contained in the original, uncompressed recording. Apple's new "Mastered for iTunes" tries to minimize this lost data by downsampling the original, high-quality music file to 44.1 kHz using a 32-bit floating-point intermediary file. This file is then converted to AAC. As Apple writes in its Mastered for iTunes guide, this process uses "every bit of resolution available, preserving all the dynamic range of the 24-bit source file." For end users, this means your Master for iTunes tracks will sound delightful to even the best-trained ears. For more details on the technology behind these new Mastered for iTunes tracks, you can visit Apple's new Mastered for iTunes website. There's also an excellent article from Ars Technica on the subject.
