Apple Music HiFi tier to be announced

Heck no, no and heck no!

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I had a quick look but have not tried the Apple Music app yet, what is it that you find so bad?

As a longtime Apple-only user (since 1989) and while being almost diametrically opposed to Timā€™s current management style and priorities, I am pretty sure that Apple will follow on its own path of securing a good walled garden while not necessarily pushing for the highest SQ as far as cold specs are concerned.

In other words:

  • Apple HATES adhering to proprietary standards established by others unless they are simple enough to follow and compatible with their goals of offering the ā€œbest possible thingā€ for ā€œmost peopleā€; this means that, just like when they shunned Blu-Ray, things like MQA are out of the equation;

  • It also means that Apple NEVER goes for the top-specced format, nor advertises the capabilities of their devices and services in raw numbers; they will simply market their own solution as being the result of years of research which end up rivalling whatever best is out there. In fact, they had already tried to do the same thing with their ā€œMastered for iTunesā€ program some years ago, even if this was using 256Kbps AAC;

  • so no, there is no direct move against the likes of Qobuz or HRA Streaming, for the simple reason that Apple will, most probably, not even mention if their files are lossless, but just ā€œthe best soundā€ there can be;

  • forget about Roon integration - Apple will never accept to relinquish its raw metadata to smaller niche players - on the other hand, they MAY just decide to buy a similar solution though I can hardly see the benefit as they already offer Apple Music and full integration with their ecosystem;

  • another point: Timā€™s Apple is all about ā€œservicesā€, no matter how many failures they have had in the past (eWorld, Ping, etc.) - so whatever they offer WILL rely on a subscription model/bundle to make people join their stuff, even if some of the elements of the Apple One package are total crap and prone to abandonment in the near future (Apple Arcade, Apple News, Apple Fitness, or even Apple TV+).

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Anything that gives more listeners a Hi Fi or Hi Res experience is good for Roon, Qobuz, Tidal etc.

My experience is people who have told me ā€˜it has been proven that you canā€™t hear a differenceā€™ seem to ā€˜likeā€™ more music and ā€˜listenā€™ to music more when they have a higher quality source.

Then some will be open to the in home experience, meta data etc that Roon provides, and our numbers will grow.

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I am not sure Appleā€™s music audience would ever care or know about audiophile solutions such as Roon - the bulk of their customer base is concerned about the next Dua Lipa, Taylor Swift or Billie Eilish release; and this is what Apple aims at: long-term fidelity for their subscribed services.

Yet I agree that the launch of an Apple ā€œhi-fiā€ option may, indeed, raise the awareness of some to such niche solutions.

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Thanks for responding ricgf, and for you nice long post on Apple.

Given the number of subscribers, I think 73 million, there is a wide variety of fans of all types. Swift, Lip and Billie Eilish being the most streamed.

I ironically when Spotify announced their new vision for the future that included reference to HiFi function, the only mention in their 45 minute on line post was a segment from Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas on the importance to them for their fans to hear all of the sounds of the music they make.

Apple think about a third of my albums never had a cover design. Roon was worth the asking price alone to me just to have the album art.

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Yeah, thatā€™s pretty much my experience as well. Scouring the web for decent quality cover art gets tired fast.

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I have lots of non-english albums and neither Apple nor Roon gets it right. While it is not their direct fault, both probably use external sources, Iā€™d say Roon must get more because it is their primary business, unlike Appleā€™s(one of the services), but it doesnā€™t.
Letā€™s also take lyrics tab in Roon, what is this? -

Havenā€™t seen this in Apple ever, this is not useful Roon.
I also use Apple Music to edit most of my genre remapping and other basic metadata editing, I can do it all without touching my mouse, keyboard only editing, try this in Roon.

My point, there is no perfect thing, in my fantasy world, I see Roon run Apple Music, use native development for each platform, have Appleā€™s level of ā€œSiriā€¦ play whateverā€¦ā€
In imperfect one, Iā€™d like to have Apple lossless, it is about time, we can stream 4k!, we forgot about lossy ever existed.

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Apple reportedly with keep the same price with their lossless upgrade. That would be the ultimate smack down to Spotify whom Iā€™m sure was going to increase their price for cd quality.

I get a strong feeling these companies really dislike each other.

Hereā€™s how I read the current Revolution in HiFi Music Streaming:

Announce Apple/Spotify/Amazon HiFi/Tidal MQA
They will:

  1. Differentiate their products using confusing and hard-to-verify terminology and/or tech.
  2. Rope in a few ā€œHiFi Enthusiastsā€.
  3. Reel in many more wannabe-cool types who donā€™t know and donā€™t care if itā€™s really better, but want to be seen as hip/smart/rich.
  4. Get a ton of press, mostly written by folks who almost know what theyā€™re talking about.

Deliver whatever they want without worry, since the only people who will understand the audio eggheads who prove the delivered product isnā€™t actually better wonā€™t ever get their message through to the Class 2 people.

  1. Profit even more than before.
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Whatā€™s interesting is Apple already has in all cases 16/44.1k lossless tracks and probably most cases 24/192 or 24/96 as that is a requirement for Apple Music:

https://help.apple.com/itc/videoaudioassetguide/#/itc229ed12b2
and
https://help.apple.com/itc/videoaudioassetguide/#/itc5a739206b

It almost seems like they just need to flip a switch or something to offer the streaming in high res. and CD lossless.

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Yes, theyā€™ve been receiving most new items in 16/44, 24/48, or 24/96 for YEARS. Iā€™m sure it really IS as simple as throwing a switch - ignoring, of course, the need for beefing up their delivery infrastructure :wink:

Given Appleā€™s stellar success each time they roll out a new software update on any/all of their platforms Iā€™m predicting that, when the ā€œHiFiā€ switch is thrown in Apple towers, hundreds of millions of people all over the world will see their Apple devices run the battery out in 20 minutes, experience dropped calls 50% of the time, have the keyboard push out . $ no matter which key is pressed, and have the ability to only play Eminem albums. You heard it here first.

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[Edited] Iā€™m surprised by this statement.

Actually, I think that commenting on ā€œmy stanceā€ in ā€œcontroversialā€ discussions is against the new Forum rules, though I donā€™t mind. But why surprised? I try to call things as they are, not as Iā€™d like them to be or imagine them to be.

I think most people here have a strict definition of lossless in digital or mathematical domain (which is why we have debates about ā€œlosslessā€ in analog domain elsewhere), as said in

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The protocol itself can be bit perfect if ALAC compression is chosen instead of AAC.

However, typical apps go through the OS mixer so you cannot get bit perfect from typical apps. I suppose (but not sure) Roon can send a bit perfect stream to AirPlay, but Roon does not mark it as bit perfect because:

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I was trying to avoid starting another flame war while keeping things factual :wink:
And I am pretty sure I never mentioned MQA :rofl:

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Apparently theyā€™re going to double down and create an even more expensive tier that includes MQA: Tidal forks MQA | Darko.Audio

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