iTunes question - What format are the digital downloads?

Praetorius

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 6, 2002
Messages
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I have a noob iTunes question. I am about to buy some albums. What format am I downloading? MP3 files? A propietary Apple format that only iPods and iPhones can read? Just wondering what I'm paying for.
 
They're ISO-standard AAC audio files wrapped in an ISO-standard MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14) container. They can be played on any modern device, demuxed/remuxed and converted freely.
 
I should also add as a side note, that AAC is a superior format to MP3. It was designed to be that way. Everything these days plays it of course, but MP3 is still more 'popular'.

It's still more popular? I'd have thought that as much as iTunes and i-devices have taken off, that they'd usurp MP3. Oh well... It's a splendid format. I'm really hoping (but I really doubt this will happen) that one day Apple will start to offer music in Apple Lossless, instead of having to go through HDTracks.
 
It's still very popular. Most of the alternative distributors still use MP3s.
 
its 256 kilobits stereo M4A files with no Digital Rights Management. However there are some embedded metadata fields that contains your account info like a unique user id (not credit card information or address or something). This lets you freely use the file as you wish, but gives the record companies some assurance that you won't distribute the file.
 
It's still very popular. Most of the alternative distributors still use MP3s.
More universal in MP3 format.

As an aside, audio Podcast downloads via iTunes come in MP3 format. I wonder why they didn't use the same M4A format as music. File sizes at the same quality could be smaller.
 
More universal in MP3 format.

As an aside, audio Podcast downloads via iTunes come in MP3 format. I wonder why they didn't use the same M4A format as music. File sizes at the same quality could be smaller.
podcasters probably record them in mp3 format
 
podcasters probably record them in mp3 format
I don't think that's it. Every single Podcast seems to be in MP3 format (searching my eclectic collection, every single one is in MP3 format. It's possibly that Apple requires Podcasts are uploaded in MP3 format, but I'm not sure why Apple does that.
 
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