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May 31, 2007
iTunes Plus provides 'better quality' sound
Music fans have been given the chance to download better quality recordings of their favourite songs to their iPods, thanks to Apple's new iTunes Plus service.
The DRM free tracks will feature 256 kbps AAC encoding to ensure that playback quality from an iPod is almost indistinguishable from the original recordings.
Initially tracks available via iTunes Plus will come from EMI's digital catalogue, which features artists such as the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, Coldplay and John Coltrane.
The higher quality recordings will cost 99p each, but people who have already bought the songs from iTunes will be able to upgrade for 20p a track or £2.00 for a complete album.
Apple will continue to offer its existing five million-song catalogue via its regular iTunes service for 79p a track, but work is already underway to upgrade much of it to the higher quality recordings.
Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive officer, said: "Our customers are very excited about the freedom and amazing sound quality of iTunes Plus. We expect more than half of the songs on iTunes will be offered in iTunes Plus versions by the end of this year."
Meanwhile, Apple has also launched iTunes U, a service which allows students to download lectures, language lessons and lab demonstrations from leading US universities to their iPods free of charge.
© 2007 Adfero Ltd
Posted by ipodworld at May 31, 2007 09:53 AM
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