Apple Hi-Res Streaming Has Arrived With Apple Digital Masters

After sitting on a stockpile of high-resolution audio masters for a while now, Apple has finally decided to launch its often rumored hi-res streaming service, joining the ranks of other platforms like TIDAL and Deezer, who also provide this premium quality tier.

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Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0

I’ve been predicted this would happen for a couple of years and now it’s finally here. Apple has taken its treasure trove of high-resolution audio masters and launched a new “initiative” called Apple Digital Masters.

Details are sketchy and the only announcement has come through Billboard so far, but an Apple hi-res streaming component has been whispered for ages. It makes sense in that the company has been collecting hi-res masters since 2012 under its Mastered For iTunes program, or MFIT.

Under MFIT, the preferred resolution for submission has been 96kHz/24 bit, but Apple actually considers anything that’s 24 bit to be hi-res.

Apple claims that the majority of top releases on Apple Music currently are now available as Apple Digital Masters, with about 75% of the Top 100 in the U.S. and 71% of the Top 100 globally created under the program. It’s suggesting that more of the catalog will be converted to Digital Masters soon.

There are other streaming services that offer high-resolution tiers, most notably Tidal, but also Deezer, Qobuz and Primephonic. The difference is that you pay more (usually $19.95) to access the lossless hi-res tiers on those services. It looks like you won’t pay anything extra to receive a similar experience on Apple Music from now on.

More news on this as it becomes available.