Apple Music Upgrading existing library to Lossless and Atmos in Apple Music...

[spencecb]

Hi all,

I had a question about upgrading my library to the new Lossless and Atmos formats, as long as they are available in the new formats.

I have been replacing so many of my existing albums by adding the "new" album from Apple Music into my library and deleting the "old" version of the album. My library is old, started it when iTunes came out originally. So I have various was music was added to my library over the years, from ripping albums I owned, buying music from iTunes, using iTunes Match to upload to the cloud, all the way to streaming from Apple Music.

I can't seem to find rhyme or reason to what has been "automatically" upgraded to the new versions of the album or why I have to delete the album and re-add it.

Any idea on an easy way to say "library, upgrade every single thing to the new format of the album if there is one and replace the old one (as I have no need for both versions).

I know that Apple said if you have downloaded music, you will need to delete the files and re-download to get the lossless and/or Atmos version. So I tried this with my iPhone, but it made no difference on those albums I had downloaded. They still are the old version of the album, once it is re-downloaded.

Any help would be appreciated, and happy to answer any questions!

 

[Brenster]

No obvious answer to the ‘upgrade everything to the new format if available’. I’ve had the pop-up suggesting I remove and re-add an album that I’ve downloaded the AAC/stereo version of in order to play/download the newer Atmos version. I’ve also had the same pop-up this morning for an album that has been added to my library in the past but hasn’t been downloaded for offline sync.

I was hoping for an ‘upgrade all’ toggle in either iOS/iPad OS 4.7 or the 15 betas. No dice.

I’ve resigned myself to having to delete albums from my library, including any downloads, then add them again from scratch. Which is a pain given the rate that Deutsche Grammophon/Decca CLassics have been issuing new releases in Atmos as well as reissuing older albums in the format.

 

[dannys1]

Hi all,

I had a question about upgrading my library to the new Lossless and Atmos formats, as long as they are available in the new formats.

I have been replacing so many of my existing albums by adding the "new" album from Apple Music into my library and deleting the "old" version of the album. My library is old, started it when iTunes came out originally. So I have various was music was added to my library over the years, from ripping albums I owned, buying music from iTunes, using iTunes Match to upload to the cloud, all the way to streaming from Apple Music.

I can't seem to find rhyme or reason to what has been "automatically" upgraded to the new versions of the album or why I have to delete the album and re-add it.

Any idea on an easy way to say "library, upgrade every single thing to the new format of the album if there is one and replace the old one (as I have no need for both versions).

I know that Apple said if you have downloaded music, you will need to delete the files and re-download to get the lossless and/or Atmos version. So I tried this with my iPhone, but it made no difference on those albums I had downloaded. They still are the old version of the album, once it is re-downloaded.

Any help would be appreciated, and happy to answer any questions!

I don't see the point - mostly the Atmos mixes are worse, so you'd be better checking them first to see if you even want to replace the superior mix - and you won't be able to hear the difference between the 256kbps AAC file and the lossless version so just forget about it and don't waste your time (or storage pace).

 

[spencecb]

I don't see the point - mostly the Atmos mixes are worse, so you'd be better checking them first to see if you even want to replace the superior mix - and you won't be able to hear the difference between the 256kbps AAC file and the lossless version so just forget about it and don't waste your time (or storage pace).

Thank you, but an opinion of the new formats is not what I asked about

That being said: my storage space is fine and I’d prefer to have the lossless version of my music. I do agree that Atmos can be hit or miss, but that’s due to that particular album’s mixers. There are some albums I’ve heard that sound absolutely incredible in Atmos.

 

[dannys1]

Thank you, but an opinion of the new formats is not what I asked about

That being said: my storage space is fine and I’d prefer to have the lossless version of my music. I do agree that Atmos can be hit or miss, but that’s due to that particular album’s mixers. There are some albums I’ve heard that sound absolutely incredible in Atmos.

Right, but it's not something you'd want to just auto change all to is it? It needs to be done on merit.

I mean technically there is an "upgrade all" button, just highlight your entire library and put "remove download" next time it'll stream or download the lossless or atmos version.

 

[Julien]

Right, but it's not something you'd want to just auto change all to is it? It needs to be done on merit.

I mean technically there is an "upgrade all" button, just highlight your entire library and put "remove download" next time it'll stream or download the lossless or atmos version.

Unfortunately it is not always that straightforward. Many albums have multiple versions and depending on the version you originally downloaded from will effect what is streamed or downloaded. For instance there are three versions of The Beatles - Abbey Road and only one has Atmos. If you have your original downloaded track from one of the other two you will not get Atmos unless you manually go and add from the version that has Atmos. The same problems can be for getting lossless, remastered and remastered for Apple Digital Master.

 

[dannys1]

Unfortunately it is not always that straightforward. Many albums have multiple versions and depending on the version you originally downloaded from will effect what is streamed or downloaded. For instance there are three versions of The Beatles - Abbey Road and only one has Atmos. If you have your original downloaded track from one of the other two you will not get Atmos unless you manually go and add from the version that has Atmos. The same problems can be for getting lossless, remastered and remastered for Apple Digital Master.

But they are different releases - the same way there have always been difference masters released on CD - people wanted the Japanese masters as they sounded better, then you had UK release, various different mastering engineers used on EU releases too - there has never been on definitive master or even mix of a track. Each album might have gone back to the multi-track and mixed the song again, or it might be a digital remaster. Of course it's only going to play back the version from the album you've added - if you want a different one you'll have to add a different album, this isn't a fault of Apple Music.

 

[Julien]

But they are different releases...

Exactly and why the OP just can't delete and expect the "....next time it'll stream or download the lossless or atmos version". It will require a lot of research to insure that they get the quality/version of the track that want.

 

[spencecb]

Right, but it's not something you'd want to just auto change all to is it? It needs to be done on merit.

I mean technically there is an "upgrade all" button, just highlight your entire library and put "remove download" next time it'll stream or download the lossless or atmos version.

It definitely does not work this way. As you can read in my original post, I stated that I did just that. I removed all downloaded music from my iPhone, and it did **not** stream in a lossless formate or Atmos. And, yes, I have all my setting correct.

 

[dannys1]

It definitely does not work this way. As you can read in my original post, I stated that I did just that. I removed all downloaded music from my iPhone, and it did **not** stream in a lossless formate or Atmos. And, yes, I have all my setting correct.

I mean I don't know what to tell you - that's how it works for me. Although i've turned Atmos off now when I just checked then it definitely did this for me too. Mac seems more reliable than iOS though.

 

[spencecb]

I mean I don't know what to tell you - that's how it works for me. Although i've turned Atmos off now when I just checked then it definitely did this for me too. Mac seems more reliable than iOS though.

LOL. You contradict yourself in your own posts, and Julien called you out on it, too! You, yourself, described the various different versions of albums that exist, which I agree makes this a difficult problem to have an easy solution. So, no, deleting an album from downloads and then either downloading it again (with lossless option checked in preferences) is not going to switch it to the lossless version, unless you add that version of the album. I am far less concerned about Atmos, as I said before that that format only sounds great when the sound mixers do a good job. Otherwise, it sounds washed out and muted.

 

[dannys1]

LOL. You contradict yourself in your own posts, and Julien called you out on it, too! You, yourself, described the various different versions of albums that exist, which I agree makes this a difficult problem to have an easy solution. So, no, deleting an album from downloads and then either downloading it again (with lossless option checked in preferences) is not going to switch it to the lossless version, unless you add that version of the album. I am far less concerned about Atmos, as I said before that that format only sounds great when the sound mixers do a good job. Otherwise, it sounds washed out and muted.

No i've not contradicted myself at all. IF there is a lossless version of that album you added available it WILL replace it with the lossless version if you delete and re-download. Obviously if that album doesn't have lossless versions it won't. In my testing though if albums have literally the exact same bit-perfect track Apple Music shares them between albums so one lossless version is available throughout multiple releases. If it's not bit-perfect it'll be separated with releases - of course there's no AI (and there shouldn't be) that automatically pulls in a lossless version of a song from a different album just because it's the same track you've got added from another album that isn't available in lossless - again this isn't a fault of Apple Music it's up to you to find the versions of the albums you want.

Obviously if you're trying to consolidate Beatles stuff which has been re-released, re-mixed and remastered about a million times it's going to take some effort on your part. It's a lot easier with stuff from the last 20-30 years generally. I've hundreds of albums which have automatically been updated to the lossless version (if I wanted it).

 

[darngooddesign]

General question. How much of an improvement have you guys noticed between an older iTunes Store 256AAC and a new Lossless 256 AAC download? I understand that hearing the difference between the 256AAC lossless and the middle tier ALAC if you dont have very good audio equipment, but Im more interested in the lower tier lossless.

 

[Julien]

General question. How much of an improvement have you guys noticed between an older iTunes Store 256AAC and a new Lossless 256 AAC download? I understand that hearing the difference between the 256AAC lossless and the middle tier ALAC if you dont have very good audio equipment, but Im more interested in the lower tier lossless.

You are conflating lossless and lossy. AAC is always lossy and ALAC is always lossless.

AAC 256kbps is lossy

Advanced Audio Coding - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

ALAC 800kbps to 1mbps is 48k/16bit lossless

Apple Lossless Audio Codec - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[darngooddesign]

I think I was confused because Lossless was a separate toggle from the bit rate choices implying in my mind that there were two versions of the 256AAC files.

 

[ChromeAce]

I recently discovered a new way to collect music that gives you far more control. Ran into a guy who uses Linux tools to download the original hi-resolution and lossless files from Tidal, DRM-free. You need to be a Tidal Premium subscriber. You then store the files on a home server and stream them to your devices over the Internet or your home network. Sounds like a lot more work to get up and running and develop a collection workflow, but this way you still have all your music if one day these cloud services go bye-bye.