The piece continues:

That will make at least four streaming music platforms to offer hi-res audio.

The best-known of these is Tidal, which offers a mix of 16-bit and 24-bit FLAC files for $19.99/month. But there’s also Deezer, which streams 16-bit FLAC files. And, for classical music, Primephonic, which offers 24-bit FLAC.

I argued a couple of years ago that Apple should, at the very least, offer lossless music downloads on iTunes. But now that so many of us have switched from downloads to streaming for much of our music listening, it’s really time for Apple to offer hi-res streaming music too.

There are challenges to this, of course. Hi-res music streams use more data, and as the music labels charge more for licensing, then Apple Music would have to charge more for a lossless tier.

But consumers would be able to choose their bit-rate, and the existing services have proven there’s demand at $20/month. All I’m asking is for Apple to give us the choice.

I’ve argued before that this is such an obvious thing for Apple to do, that it completely mystifies me why it hasn’t done so.

Apple itself frequently makes reference to the importance of music to the company. For example, when acquiring Beats, Apple said ‘music has always held a special place in our hearts’ and Phil Schiller said ‘music is in our DNA.’ So why not give it the respect it deserves, and let us listen to it at the quality the artists intended?

Granted, Apple’s AAC 256Kbps format is extremely good. Indeed, I’d go so far as to say it’s an incredible technical achievement to pull off that quality/bandwidth balance. When I’m mobile, or just have music on in the background, I absolutely don’t notice the difference between that and lossless.

But if I sit down to actively listen to music, then I do, as blind listening tests have demonstrated. And that’s speaking as someone whose mid-range ears don’t reach audiophile levels (even if they are better than I thought they were).

So, come on, Apple. It’s 2019. Prove that you mean what you say about music: give us the option of lossless downloads and hi-res streaming.

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