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Apple Music Lossless Download

For some reason when I purchase an album from Apple Music its downloaded as an AAC file instead of a ALAC file. When I go to preferences and select playback options there is no selection for lossless. I just purchased two albums and both are AAC. When I rip my cd's they are ALAC files.

Mac mini, macOS 11.6

Posted on Nov 5, 2021 3:21 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 5, 2021 3:44 PM

Big Mike,


The iTunes Store does not have lossless files. All downloads from the iTunes Store are still AAC/256. The recent Apple announcement about lossless applies to the Apple Music streaming service, not to the iTunes Store. Details in here:

About lossless audio in Apple Music - Apple Support

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5 replies

Nov 5, 2021 5:01 PM in response to ed2345

Thank you Ed. Im disappointed. I guess I'll keep buying cd's or getting my new music from Bandcamp and others. I don't stream. Probably will never do so. It was just too easy to order the music from iTunes (Apple Music) Appreciate setting me straight. Maybe its time to consider Media Center or one of the others for my library.

Nov 5, 2021 6:58 PM in response to bigmike631

bigmike631 wrote:

Ed, I just looked at the entire article you linked. If you look at the bottom of article you'll see that they say you CAN download the ALAC files. Not sure what to think...

Mike,

if you have a subscription to Apple Music, you can download lossless files for offline listening. They will not be ALAC; they will be protected files that are only playable while your subscription is active.


That is what the article means with their slightly coy phrasing: "If you subscribe to Apple Music, you can redownload music in lossless only from the Apple Music catalog."

Apple Music Lossless Download

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