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The data compression software for encoding into ALAC files, Apple Lossless Encoder, was introduced into the Mac OS X Core Audio framework on April 28, 2004, together with the QuickTime 6.5.1 update, thus making it available in iTunes since version 4.5 and above, and its replacement, the Music application. [8]
The popular MP3 format is probably the best-known example, but the AAC format found on the iTunes Music Store is also common. Most formats offer a range of degrees of compression, generally measured in bit rate. The lower the rate, the smaller the file and the more significant the quality loss.
iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management utility developed by Apple.It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating systems, and can be used to rip songs from CDs as well as playing content from dynamic, smart playlists.
Downloaded songs come with song information (name, artist, album) already filled out, though iTunes provides a free service by Gracenote to do this for songs not purchased from the store, although they must be imported with iTunes. Songs that have an entry in the iTunes Store also come with album artwork (Artwork is embedded in the metadata).
In later years, Apple began offering music videos and movies, which also use AAC for audio encoding. On May 29, 2007, Apple began selling songs and music videos from participating record labels at higher bitrate (256 kbit/s cVBR) and free of DRM, a format dubbed "iTunes Plus" .
Digital music stores sell copies of digital audio, for example in MP3 and WAV file formats. Unlike music streaming services , which typically charge a monthly subscription fee to stream digital audio, digital music stores download songs to the customer's hard disk drive of their device.
The 'Music' category is merely a guideline on commercialized uses of a particular format, not a technical assessment of its capabilities. For example, MP3 and AAC dominate the personal audio market in terms of market share, though many other formats are comparably well suited to fill this role from a purely technical standpoint.
Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio devices. The format was developed by Apple Inc. in 1988 based on Electronic Arts' Interchange File Format (IFF, widely used on Amiga systems) and is most commonly used on Apple Macintosh computer systems.