Apple Music Lossless Considerations

Hello, I was wondering if there is anyone out there with the same dilemma I have with regard to managing Apple Music and ensuring that the music that you're listening to is lossless. I've been using Apple Music (previously iTunes) since the old days when I had a subscription to iTunes Match and then moving to an Apple Music subscription. In the old days I would rip all my CD music (of which I have probably close to 1200 discs) and import those files in to iTunes as ALAC (at that time I guess it was the only lossless option in iTunes) which would then be synchronized to the cloud. So I had built up a large 200 GB iTunes library. However once I realized that you could stream lossless from Apple Music I thought that might be a better option to save disc space (and it would also include the Apple Digital Master and Spatial Audio music as well).


So the problem I have now is that most of my music which is from ripped CDs shows up without the Lossless label. I read that I would have to delete all the ALAC files out of Music and then re-add from Apple Music's library to get lossless/digital master/spatial audio enhanced music. For example I tried this with a few of my ripped Simon and Garfunkel CDs. The only drawback with this was that the CDs that I ripped were Deluxe Edition and each had a few extra tracks which the Apple Lossless/Digital Master album versions did not have. So I see that as a trade-off insofar as I would have to give up the extra tracks to get the Apple versions. I tried keeping both but that didn't work as it just duplicated each track (except of course the extra tracks). That seemed like a mess because I couldn't easily tell which were my originals and which were the Apple Music Lossless files without having to "Get Info" on every track. Moreover this took some time to accomplish (there were about 7 S&G albums I replaced) and as I mentioned I have a lot of ripped music and I imagine it could potentially take months to delete and download my Library. I'm not opposed to do it but my questions are: Is it really necessary to replace the ALAC music with the Apple Lossless? and if anyone has tried it are there simpler ways to accomplish this task? I really like the idea of having the lossless music available for streaming to my stereo and if I could come up with a way to get everything in that format I think I would try it.


Thanks!

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 12.5

Posted on Aug 29, 2022 03:16 PM

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Aug 29, 2022 05:46 PM in response to WillyMcFly

I am wondering this as well. Are they seriously forcing people to subscribe to Apple Music just to playback as Lossless even though you're importing the CD as an ALAC file?


Another thing I noticed (as I am importing my CD collecting right now) is that when you are done importing, select Get Info, and go to the File tab that it will either say "kind Apple Lossless audio file" or "available Apple Lossless audio file." If you imported as an ALAC, my question would also be: why it would say "available" on some files if you've imported as an ALAC?

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Apple Music Lossless Considerations

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