Apple in talks to improve sound quality of music downloads

San Francisco (CNN) -- 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.

From there, the audio can be compressed further in order to minimize the time the music will take to download or to allow it to be streamed on-the-fly over the internet.

Why don't record labels at least give retailers the option of working from higher-grade recordings?

"Why?" Jimmy Iovine, a longtime music executive, asked rhetorically. "I don't know. It's not because they're geniuses."

'Changing the pipes'

Iovine, in addition to being the chairman of Universal Music Group's Interscope-Geffen-A&M record label, has a venture with hip hop artist Dr. Dre called Beats Audio. The company designs high-end headphones and other audio equipment.

Work from Beats Audio will be included in the upcoming TouchPad tablet computer from Hewlett-Packard. HP has sold 1 million laptops with Beats Audio technology.

Iovine briefly discussed the topic of improving the caliber of music offered by download services onstage during a two-hour HP news conference unveiling the TouchPad and other products.

"We've gone back now at Universal, and we're changing our pipes to 24 bit. And Apple has been great," Iovine said. "We're working with them and other digital services -- download services -- to change to 24 bit. 

And some of their electronic devices are going to be changed as well. So we have a long road ahead of us."

A new high-end smartphone, called the Pre 3, was also announced at HP's event. But the device only has mono speakers, according to technical specifications provided by HP.

Many models of Mac computers can play 24-bit sound, and the iTunes program is capable of handling such files. But most portable electronics, and many computers, don't support 24-bit audio.

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.

"Paul McCartney can master The Beatles albums all he wants, (but) when you play them through a Dell computer, it sounds like you're playing them through a portable television," Iovine said.

Apple secured rights to begin selling The Beatles catalog in November as the exclusive digital retailer.

Apple has upgraded the quality of its music catalog once before. In January 2009, the iTunes Store began offering most tracks in a bit-rate twice as high as its previous standard and free of copy-protection. Apple had piloted the program two years prior with music giant EMI.

ITunes controls about 66% of the paid digital-download market. Amazon MP3 trails with 13%, according to research from the NPD Group.

Apple and Amazon declined to comment for this story. Representatives for the big four record companies didn't respond to requests for comment.

eMusic, a smaller digital retailer, is investigating whether customers would be willing to pay for higher-quality downloads, Adam Klein, the company's CEO, said in a statement.

The eMusic website recently began selling albums from major labels, including the Universal Music Group, which Iovine is negotiating on behalf of. Universal and eMusic executives have met regularly "to discuss future initiatives," Klein said.

Read more:http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/02/22/24.bit.music/index.html?hpt=Sbin