ITunes Plus Quality

I am confused about iTunes Plus. I read on the Apple site that the quality is higher, but here in the forums someone said the quality is no different from regular iTunes, just larger file sizes. I am also confused about what iTunes Plus really is. Is it a new iTunes version (program) or just a service? The reason I ask is because I spent about 3-4 weeks slowly importing my CD collection into iTunes on my new Macbook. That is close to 300 CDs. I am afraid that I am "stuck" with lower quality imports than if I had upgraded my software to iTunes Plus first. Am I even close to understanding what iTunes Plus is?

Yes, you're right. The 256 kbps iTunes Plus files is better audio quality. It's still not as good as what is on a retail audio CD (1.400 kbps), but better than the original DRM protected 128 kbps files.~
AND, the most important thing - iTunes Plus is free from all DRM protection.
I've heard rumors that ALL 10.000.000 songs available in iTunes store will be DRM free somewhere around April or May 2009. Maybe someone else here can confirm?.

Similar Messages

I upgraded some albums to iTunes Plus - songs duplicated/overwritten

I upgraded a couple albums to iTunes Plus quality, specifically Elton John's "Live in Australia" and his debut album "Elton John". Both contain the tracks "Your Song" and "The King Must Die". When I downloaded the iTunes Plus version of the album "Live in Australia", the live version of the track "Your Song" replaced the studio version on "Elton John", and the live version of "The King Must Die" was downloaded into the "Elton John" album instead of the studio version of the same name. How is this possible? Though they share the same track name, they're from different albums.

Thanks. I should have thought of that. The "overwritten" tracks were in fact still in the trash. Crisis diverted, as I like to say.

Help with iTunes Plus/ DRM purchases!

I have several songs that i have purchased on iTunes. When i got the message from iTunes that i could get half my library upgraded to iTunes Plus/DRM free i upgraded. I got a message saying that i could keep my DRM/old purchases in a old folder i clicked yes. A few days before this i backed up all my purchases onto a disc, anyways some how they ended up on my library so i ended up with all doubles of my iTunes purchased music. So now i have triple copies of my purchases and i am trying to free up space. How do i delete the old copies/DRM purchases? How do i know what songs are iTunes Plus quality so i don't erase those ? Please help this is making my head hurt!

Hi There
I have had this same problem, I solved it by going to the file menu in iTunes and selecting "Show Duplicates" then selecting the purchased duplicates and pressing command + i and under the summary tab looking at the file kind (located under the album art). The DRM versions of your songs will have Protected AAC audio file and the DRM free versions will have Purchased AAC audio file. Then Manually deleting the Protected AAC audio file copies. This is time consuming and an annoyance but I have found no other way of doing this.
Hope this helps
J.C

Burning iTunes Plus and other 256 bit rate material to get best quality?

I understand that iTunes Plus and most songs on Amazon are provided at a higher bit rate than non-Plus iTunes songs in order to provide higher audio quality on playback. But, does this quality differential come through when burning a song to disc from within iTunes?
I ask because of an experiment I just conducted. I downloaded the same song from iTunes (not a Plus version) and from Amazon. The Amazon version takes up twice as much file space as the iTunes version. (The ACC file at 128kbps was 5MB while the MPEG file at 256 kbps was 11.6MB.) However, when I burned both songs to a CD, those files where identical in size. Further, when played on a near-audiophile stereo system, I could hear no discernible difference between the two.
So the question: Does whatever extra information and hence sound quality contained in the Plus or other 256 kbps material get lost in the conversion to audio CD format? Are there settings in iTunes I'm missing? Are there alternative software or file formats available that would burn audio CDs without this loss?
(I realize that whatever difference there is in sound quality would not be detectable on most equipment. What I'm looking for is to preserve quality differences that can be heard on high-end equipment. As it is, I'm able to tell the difference between well-recorded and produced commercial CDs and the same material bought through iTunes.)

The quality of compressed audio is not always linked to file size. I believe it is possible for a 128 kbps AAC file to sound as good as a 256 kbps MP3 file. MP3 is not the best audio compression format but it is by far the most commonplace. A 128 kbps AAC file isn't as good as a 192 kbps AAC file, however.
When your audio files were uncompressed for burning to audio CD they naturally became the same size because there no longer was any compression.
If your objective is to have audio CDs that sound best on high-end equipment then you should continue buying audio CDs rather than purchasing on-line music. That way there is no loss in audio quality from compression. I'm not aware of a source that is selling lossless on-line music downloads.

Will iTunes Plus stream ALAC quality to my iPad?

Hi! I'm thinking of subscribing to iTunes Plus. I import my CD's to iTunes in ALAC (Apple Lossless) quality.
So I want to know if iTunes Plus will be able to stream the lossless codec? Or will it be downgraded to 256kbps AAC?
Any thoughts?

I fixed the problem myself. By wiping all the iPad content and doing a fresh resync, this got all my music back including the songs which were not syncing before.
Settings -> General -> Reset -> Erase all Content and Settings
Upon reconnecting to iTunes, I was prompted with the option to restore from the last backup. I selected my latest iPad backup, and then let the restore complete. Resync'd apps and music as well. Bingo!

ITunes Plus/Upgrade My Library Won't Detect Some Eligible Items

I've seen a couple of threads on this topic, and I'd like to submit my own.
This thread will serve the dual purpose of providing a possible answer to the problem and bringing to attention iTunes Store customer support's poor response thus far.
Here's the problem in a nutshell: When iTunes Plus was made available, I upgraded my Library because I have quite a few EMI records (all bought through the iTunes Store within the last few months), including Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon', 'The Wall', 'Animals', and 'Wish You Were Here', among others.
The Upgrade successfully purchased and downloaded iTunes Plus albums for my entire EMI collection except for 'Dark Side of the Moon' and 'Animals'. When I return to Upgrade My Library in the iTunes Store, it claims my Library is completely up-to-date, when in fact it certainly isn't because two of my EMI albums are still 128 kbps DRM protected, despite the fact that the iTunes Plus album is available in the iTunes Store at full price.
Several other people are experiencing the same problem with Pink Floyd and Norah Jones. Strangely, some cannot Upgrade 'The Wall', while mine Upgraded with no problem whatsoever.
What's so buggy about Upgrade My Library, Apple? How can we manually rescan the Library so that these lingering eligible albums can be Upgraded?
I have gone back and forth with iTunes Customer Service about this issue. My first reply I received a day after filling out an error report at the Support Page.
Dear Travis,
I understand that you are unable to upgrade two of your Pink Floyd albums that are available for purchase as iTunes Plus music. I'm sorry for this trouble.
Apple is currently working toward a resolution for the issue you have reported. You will receive an email after the matter has been investigated and further information is available.
Thank you for your patience. Apple wants your iTunes experience to be as enjoyable as possible.
Sincerely,
Cordon
iTunes Store Customer Support
I received a follow-up four days later:
Dear Travis,
I'm sorry you ran into an error when you tried to upgrade your iTunes library. This error was caused by a temporary issue with the iTunes Store that should be resolved now. Please check the iTunes Store again. All features should be working well.
If you received this error while downloading a large purchase order, please understand that the cause of the error may be a combination of the size of the order you are downloading and the speed of your connection. Please try another connection that is faster than your current connection. If this is not possible, please continue to attempt to download your purchase. This may take several attempts.
Sincerely,
Cordon
iTunes Store Customer Support
And of course, the problem hadn't been resolved as stated. So I sent a reply:
No, I'm afraid you don't understand.. I can't try to download the iTunes Plus versions of my Pink Floyd albums Dark Side of the Moon and Animals because the iTunes Plus Library Upgrade says I have nothing to upgrade.
Why is it telling me this when I have the two albums in the protected 128 kbps format, which I bought from the iTunes store only months ago? Is there a cookie I need to reset somewhere, or is this an iTunes Server issue? Why isn't 'Upgrade My Library' recognizing these two albums?
If you can't solve the issue and allow me to upgrade, would you instead credit my account for the full price of both iTunes Plus albums I'm having trouble with?
To which Apple disappointingly replied today:
Dear Travis,
I understand you tried to upgrade your iTunes Library and all but "Pink Floyd albums Dark Side of the Moon and Animals," were upgraded. I know how frustrating this can be and I would be happy to assist you.
You can upgrade eligible previously purchased music to iTunes Plus. You will see any available upgrades on the new Upgrade My Library page. When you click the Upgrade button, you will replace all the eligible music and music videos you've bought previously on iTunes with available iTunes Plus versions of the same content (you cannot choose to upgrade only some of the items). The upgrade price is calculated based on all of your eligible content at 30¢ per song, 60¢ per video, and 30 percent of each album's purchase price. iTunes Plus music will continually be added to the iTunes Store, so your upgrade offer may change at any time. Please check back often to find new music available for upgrading.
For more information, please visit the iTunes Plus FAQ:
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n305567
I hope this answers your question.
Thank you for choosing the iTunes Store and have a great day!
Sincerely,
Sandra
iTunes Store Customer Support
This email is the specific reason I'm posting this issue. I am curious why I would be sent a blatantly common FAQ response instead of the accurate and personal response I'm used to getting from Apple.
If they cannot figure the problem out, why don't they come out and say it, then give me a credit to my account so that I may purchase the iTunes Plus albums rather than troublesomely try and Upgrade them?
Any workaround or comments are welcome, both from Apple consumers and employees.
My apologies in advance to the outstanding Apple team that makes up 99% of the company. I don't intend to let one bad apple (no pun intended, honestly) sour the reputation of the lot of you.
20 Inch iMac Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I've done some comparisons of the File Info between my DRM-Protected 'Dark Side' and 'Animals' songs and the DRM-Free versions. It turns out there are differences which might explain the trouble Upgrade My Library has in recognizing eligible albums.
On 'Animals':
Standard http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a249/travisschiller/Picture2.png
Plus http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a249/travisschiller/Picture1.png
Notice the difference in the album art and, notably, the Copyright information. This is not the same song with only quality affected. Apparently, there was some copyright changes that took place, which might critically affect the eligibility of an album or songs.
The same with 'Dark Side of the Moon':
Standard http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a249/travisschiller/Picture4.png
Plus http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a249/travisschiller/Picture3.png
Notice here, too, the running time of the song is different.
All that needs to be done by Apple is a configuration of Upgrade My Library so that it will recognize these previous versions of these albums for those of us who bought it before the revision took place.
20 Inch iMac Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.9)

General iTunes Plus Question

When iTunes Plus initially started, I was under the impression that it was an alternate format for songs that you could buy for a little extra price. Now it seems everything is in iTunes plus at the regular price. Is this true? Is anything with the iTunes plus sign in the DRM-Free format? I have bought some stuff like this and they play in this music game I have, Audiosurf, whereas my older albums won't show up because they are protected. I'm assuming all new albums on the store are in iTunes plus by default, at the regular price, but I just want to make sure, especially since I have a very simple music editing software, Audacity, that cannot edit any song from iTunes period, new or old. I do not so much care about editing songs (especially since I mainly used it to cut out 20 second snippets for ringtones) but it has cast some doubt on the DRM-freeness of the songs. Just hoping for some clarification about this iTunes plus.
Are all albums with the plus sign in the DRM-free format and at the normal price, .99 a song?

Is anything with the iTunes plus sign in the DRM-Free format?
ALL of it is DRM free.
Are all albums with the plus sign in the DRM-free format and at the normal price, .99 a song?
Most are.
-> Changes Coming to the iTunes Store
"SAN FRANCISCO—January 6, 2009—Apple® today announced several changes to the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com). Beginning today, all four major music labels—Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI, along with thousands of independent labels, are now offering their music in iTunes Plus, Apple’s DRM-free format with higher-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings. iTunes customers can also choose to download their favorite songs from the world’s largest music catalog directly onto their iPhone™ 3G over their 3G network just as they do with Wi-Fi today, for the same price as downloading to their computer. And beginning in April, based on what the music labels charge Apple, songs on iTunes will be available at one of three price points: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29, with most albums still priced at $9.99."

Okay, what is the deal with ITUNES plus?

I've read multiple threads and post. I've downloaded the new version. From what I've gathered, it seems only EMI artists are currently part of the ITUNES plus? I also understand you are "supposed" to be getting a better quality of sound from artists you download from Itunes Plus? Furthermore, I see they increased the price for a single download for any artist associated with ITUNES plus. Now... anyone care to explain to me what all this mention of DRM-free means? Does this mean we can actually convert our purchases to mp3's and upload them up to our non-apple music player? Because this is all I care about at this point. However, since it's only restricted to EMI artists and I haven't a single tune downloaded from that companies' artists, this new version means squat to me. Does this mean, eventually the other companies will jump on the band wagon, and we'll be able to finally convert our music to play on any music player? I hope so. But for now, it just seems like Apple just found a way to charge us more for their songs. Hmmm?
Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Almost since the inception of iTMS and later iTS the Internet has been rife with people complaining about Apple's use of DRM on music tracks. Obviously no record company was going to sign up to DRM-free music on the first day of iTMS as it seemed obvious that it would be onward distributed with no financial recompense to the record company so DRM was used to allow the track to be played on five computers and any number of connected iPods (very generous really). However acknowledging the discontent around the globe Apple's CEO Steve Jobs wrote his Thoughts on Music. Shortly after that EMI obliged Apple's request and agreed to offer DRM-free music that you could potentially totally abuse and send to all your friends (Don't though). Apple and EMI believe that, in actual fact, the ease of iTS will mean that people won't do that but they will actually buy music themselves. Actually iTunes Plus trackscontain your iTS username so it's traceable.
Advantages of iTunes Plus:
256k (vs 128k) encoded tracks - better quality for the serious audiophiles.
DRM-free means you can load your tracks on to your generic mp3 player/mobile phone etc.
Freedom - not tied in to the iPod platform (a big risk to Apple IMHO).
Disadvantages of iTunes Plus:
Higher cost.
Greater file size = less tracks on your iPod.
EMI tracks only.
I think it's a good idea to offer the choice, and a few cents extra for the freedom is probably worth it. I see this as Apple driving and leading the music industry to improve the service for us the customer. Happy Days.
mrtotes

Will everything eventually be on iTunes Plus?

Well I remember reading in the paper about a month ago that Apple was going to sell every song for $1.29. But, of course they didn't know the real facts.
Then about 2 weeks later iTunes Plus comes around and songs were selling for $1.29, with all the same differences the paper talked about [better sound quality and no DMR]
So my question is...will everything one day be on iTunes Plus?
Or will every single song cost $1.29 in the future?

I think Jobs said he hoped half the iTunes Store library would be in iTunes Plus by the end of the year. It's really up to the studios; most will probably come around to selling their songs DRM-free, but there could also be holdouts.

Unable to upgrade certain songs to iTunes Plus

When I go to the iTunes Plus section it shows me a few songs and albums which I can upgrade but when I try to upgrade/buy I get a message that reads: "The item you tried to buy is no longer available" So what do I do?

Yep now iTunes Plus is missing for me as well. I did manage to contact iTunes Support and this is what they replied with:-
+From time to time, the iTunes Store updates the items in the catalog to ensure the highest possible quality for our customers. It's possible that "Talvin Singh Ha" is being updated and is therefore temporarily unavailable. Please try again in 72 hours. If you still are unable to purchase it, please let me know.+
+I hope you continue to enjoy the iTunes Store, and thank you for being a loyal customer.+
But of course now there is no iTunes Plus so no option to buy anyway.

Xbox 360 will not play iTunes Plus songs!

I recently upgraded several iTunes albums to iTunes Plus versions so I could play these files on my Xbox 360, but the Xbox 360 will not play these files! If I convert the purchased files to 'AAC Audio' from within iTunes then the resultant files will play fine on the Xbox, but I am concerned this extra recoding step will affect the sound quality of the music. Why don't the 'Purchaed AAC' files work in the first place? They are supposed to be DRM free.

I have both 2mb and a 4mb 'media update' installed if that's what you mean. I also tried re-downloading one of them - I could only find one on marketplace.

Upgrade Charge for iTunes Plus Songs

Doesn't anyone feel Apple is doing a disservice to its loyal customers for charging another $.30 for upgrading songs to iTunes Plus when others can get the same songs in the higher quality for the price we originally paid? It seems unfair but I'm not sure how others feel and how we can provide our collective feedback to Apple.

itunes menu > help > Provide itunes feedback
I don't really care. The original songs sounded fine to me for several years.
This upgrade is just marketing to make you want it.
Although I do think getting rid of the DRM is the way to go, it really doesn't matter since I've burned the older songs to an audio CD and can use them how I want.

ITunes Plus - not apparent

Is there a way to have iTunes Plus show up on any track where that is an option? This is NOT the case when browsing the store.
For Example:
goto the normal search box and type in "BT kaia". The only song that shows up does not have a + sign. However when I go to buy it, its clearly available as a + track. In addition if I do a Power Search and look for "BT kaia" and check the box "iTunes Plus", viola, there is the Plus sign.
I suspect there are many songs I would buy from them, if only I knew they were iTunes plus. I like the front page for browsing, but i never see plus tracks, this is part of the reason why it seems.

If I search with iTunes Plus checked, it works. However if I browse there is no indication. Browsing is a major part of shopping, which is the whole reason for a storefront and "Top" lists. This one of the advantages of iTunes store over P2P, a great storefront, if I want to search randomly I can do that on the P2P networks and get better quality (VBR) for a lower price.
Thanks for the reply!
Message was edited by: reddogg

ITunes Plus Not Allowing Upgrade

I bought a lot of pre-iTunes Plus tunes in days gone by. To upgrade them to iTunes Plus so as to get the better quality, I have to pay 30 cents on top of the 99 cents I've already paid, even though new customers get the exact same thing for 99 cents total--standard Apple ripoff, but that's not what I'm posting about. The iTunes Store has a list of tunes I've bought that haven't been upgraded to iTunes Plus, which it would be happy to let me upgrade. However, there are a couple of dozen tunes I have in my library that don't show up on that list, even though they are available for sale in the iTunes Store right now. So, now I don't even get to be ripped off! Is there any way to get those tunes, short of going to Amazon and buying them there?

I also had this issue and still have many songs that are in the store as iTunes Plus but don't show up in my upgrade list (which has gone missing since 9.0, but that's another matter). At first customer service was working with me and I was able to get many of the missing songs, but then some directive must come down from Apple that stopped customer service from helping folks out with this issue. I could no longer contact the reps that helped me before and at first when I tried I got a message from someone superior to them saying I should basically wait. Further attempts to contact anyone in customer service about the matter were met with silence. It's been months and I eventually gave up. Good look, but don't expect much help from Apple.

Is iTunes Plus the same as iTunes 8?

Sorry, I just don't seem to be able to confirm this in anything on the web. I am sure its out there. So I am hoping that by having the latest version of iTunes 8 I have iTunes plus... is that correct?
Thank you!

I see, so iTunes plus refers to versions of tracks that are DRM free and higher quality but do not need another version of iTunes... So it is not a question of upgrading the iTunes software, but the tracks. Maybe I was being a bit dim, but that wasn't entirely clear to me for some reason. Thanks. I just downloaded an album worth of tracks and played one... it works, so I guess that is it.
Thank you.

ITunes Plus Quality

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