3 ms·

There are places that provide the option, such as Bandcamp, 7digital, HDTracks etc. so it doesn't seem to be a completely deserted market. What I don't underst

There are places that provide the option, such as Bandcamp, 7digital, HDTracks etc. so it doesn't seem to be a completely deserted market. What I don't understand about iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play and many others is that they're likely getting the tracks lossless anyway, they're then taking than and downsampling it to their common MP3 encoder settings for all tracks. It seems to me it would be trivial to add a 'FORMAT:' option, (that defaults to MP3), but allows for FLAC for these who know what it is. Am aware there are specialist lossless streaming services, but I just don't understand the block of making this an option everywhere, including the iTunes Store, which has a massive catalog and Spotify, where the curated playlists etc. are.

Erwin 8y ago
Tidal offers exactly this, see e.g. https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000397069-TIDAL-MASTERS https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000397069-TID... and Tidal HIFI. If there's sufficient market interest in this (Tidal HIFI is twice the cost of normal Tidal) then the enthusiasts will rally around the service. It doesn't look like the market cares that much, and I couldn't really hear a significant difference between's Spotify 320k stream and Tidal's masters (using HD800S + Mojo Chord as DAC).
- AsyncAwait 8y ago
  I know about Tidal, there's also Deezer HiFi and Qobuz. I like to store my music locally, but I'd sign up for one of these if they weren't twice the price. This is my problem, why pay significantly more when the streaming services get the lossless version from the label? I get the extra storage requirements, but that can't be a significant factor for the likes of Amazon, Apple and Google. As for selling music, Amazon, Apple and Google refuse to even sell you a lossless album, yet charge the same as you'd pay for a CD.

Erwin 8y ago

Tidal offers exactly this, see e.g. https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000397069-TIDAL-MASTERS https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000397069-TID... and Tidal HIFI. If there's sufficient market interest in this (Tidal HIFI is twice the cost of normal Tidal) then the enthusiasts will rally around the service. It doesn't look like the market cares that much, and I couldn't really hear a significant difference between's Spotify 320k stream and Tidal's masters (using HD800S + Mojo Chord as DAC).

AsyncAwait 8y ago
I know about Tidal, there's also Deezer HiFi and Qobuz. I like to store my music locally, but I'd sign up for one of these if they weren't twice the price. This is my problem, why pay significantly more when the streaming services get the lossless version from the label? I get the extra storage requirements, but that can't be a significant factor for the likes of Amazon, Apple and Google. As for selling music, Amazon, Apple and Google refuse to even sell you a lossless album, yet charge the same as you'd pay for a CD.