At the moment, the songs available in the iTunes Music Store are distributed in 16-bit audio format, but Apple is in advanced discussions with record companies to obtain much better quality audio tracks from them. Apple intends to offer through the iTunes Music Store 24-bit high fidelity audio files, the quality of which is clearly superior to that of the currently distributed audio files. In general, the record companies record the songs in 24-bit high fidelity format, but until they are introduced in iTunes, the songs lose quality, all with the idea of being as small as possible so that they can be downloaded as easily as possible on mobile terminals.
Apple and other digital music retailers are in discussions with record labels to improve the quality of the song files they sell, executives involved in the talks say. As a result, online music stores could eventually offer songs that sound truer to their original recordings, perhaps at a premium price. Professional music producers generally capture studio recordings in a 24-bit, high-fidelity audio format. Before the originals, or "masters" in industry parlance, are pressed onto CDs or distributed to digital sellers like Apple's iTunes, they're downgraded to 16-bit files.
Apple is not the only company distributing audio files that is now negotiating with record companies and it is very likely that in the near future it will offer customers audio files of a much higher quality, but some wonder if they will be more expensive. It is not hard to imagine that online music stores sell songs in "HD" format at higher prices because they have a much better quality.
The problem with this new 24-bit format is that the iPhone/iPad and iPod Touches are not able to read it, so Apple should rethink the iDevices a bit. Considering this "obstacle" it is very likely that the iPad 2 will have the ability to read this type of files and the iPhone 5/iPod Touch 5G will follow the same "line".
To make the jump to higher-quality music attractive for Apple, the Cupertino, California, company would have to retool future versions of iPods and iPhones so they can play higher-quality files.
