It may not matter much to those of us paying $24.99 per year for iTunes Match, but Apple is still quietly adding new functionality to iTunes for those continuing to sync the old-school way -- such as additional bitrates for converting higher quality songs while syncing.
AppleInsider is reporting on a subtle new change found in iTunes 10.6, which has added 192kbps and 256kbps options to the media player’s “Convert higher bitrate songs” option. The change will likely be welcome to higher bitrate audiophiles who want to save space when syncing to their iOS device.
“Convert higher bitrate songs” is an option that’s been available for a while as a method for converting iTunes Plus 256kpbs tracks to 128kbps on the fly while syncing. The option was introduced when Apple started to roll out flash-based iPods with small storage capacities compared to the older hard disk-based models.
The option appears to have gained a new lease on life with last week’s iTunes 10.6, which now offers the ability to choose the bitrate songs are converted to: 128kbps, 192kbps and even 256kbps, which is an ideal compromise for audiophiles who choose to rip their CD collections in the higher 320kbps bitrate on the Mac or PC but prefer to save space on an iOS device.
While the change may be welcome, its functionality is largely negated by iTunes Match, the $24.99 per year subscription service that not only scans and matches a user’s music collection, but also offers access to that complete library from any iOS device or computer using the same iTunes account. Instead of syncing music and playlists in the traditional way, users can selectively download tracks on the go as the mood strikes them, all at 256kbps iTunes Plus bitrate when they’re pulled from iCloud.
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(Image courtesy of AppleInsider)
MacAddict4Life
March 14, 2012 at 12:33am
I have to transcode all of my 256kbps AAC files to 128 kbps for my phone, because in my car the different is unnoticeable and I want to be able to keep all of my music on my iPhone. I really wish iTunes match would let me set it to download 128 kbps AACs to my phone.
robotank
March 13, 2012 at 3:35am
I just wanted to point out that audiophiles (and somewhat less extreme audio nerds like me) likely have iTunes libraries consisting of Apple Lossless files (ripped from CD or transcoded from FLAC), not 320 kbps MP3s (or any other lossy format). Down-converting to 256 kpbs AAC from Apple Lossless would yield significant space gains, but the gains from converting from 320 MP3s would be marginal, and you'd lose quality in the lossy format to lossy format transcode. Besides, 320 kpbs MP3 offers no perceptible quality gain over 256 kbps AAC, so if you want to rip in a lossy format you might as well just use the iTunes Plus setting to begin with. It seems to me that the new 256 option would only be of use to someone with lossless music willing to make a big quality-for-size trade-off for portable listening.
