Why so few ALAC downloads?

[Spiderous]

Hi, whilst Vinyl is my primary source I listen on the move a lot using iPhone, mostly ALAC rips of my cd collection, but a few wav files and some MP3. Digital source at home is a headless Mac Mini controlled via iPad, so you can see I'm fairly entrenched in Appleworld.

Is there an obvious explanation as to why so few download sites offer ALAC as a file type? I think it's great that so much vinyl comes with download cards, a minority of which offer flac or wav as an option over MP3, but I think I've only come across one so far (sub pop i think) which offered ALAC as an option. Converting flac or dealing with the wav tagging issues is a right pita.

 

[MotelBlues]

Converting flac or dealing with the wav tagging issues is a right pita.

I have found neither of these things to be true, and everything I buy or rip ends up as ALAC. dBPowerAmp easily converts other formats to ALAC. MP3tag imports data from sources such as MusicBrainz to resolve tagging issues. Qobuz sell ALAC downloads.

 

[sq225917]

Download xld just drag the music folder to the xld icon.

 

[Spiderous]

Got xld thanks, would still rather just 'add folder to Library' hence the question.

 

[Stunsworth]

Qobuz, Hyperion and Linn offer ALAC downloads.

 

[Bananahead]

The correct question is still: Why doesn't Apple support industry standard FLAC ?

 

[Spiderous]

Thanks for the replies chaps. I was wondering whether there was a licensing/ cost issues that most labels don’t want to bear, or whether it was a case of labels not realising the market. I appreciate ‘pita’ might might be overstating the effort involved in converting and / or tagging, and that for most consumers mp3 is adequate. I’m a lazy Apple user who prefers not to use mp3 where possible. Am I and others like me too small a digital download market for most suppliers not to bother with?

 

[Tony L]

The last few things I’ve bought that have had a full res download (e.g. the current Shphongle album) have had an ALAC download, if not it is very easy to covert the FLAC using XLD. I just view FLAC files as zips, convert them and delete afterwards.

There is no licensing to ALAC, Apple placed it into the public domain many years ago. I’m pretty sure the idea was to use it for full res downloads from the iTunes store, but since the death of Steve Jobs their focus has changed/reduced somewhat. I’m certain Jobs was far more audiophile-friendly than Tim Cook.

PS FWIW I feel Apple are coasting at the moment in many respects, they just don’t seem to have the radical innovative edge any more even though the products remain desirable and very high quality.

 

[lennyw]

The correct question is still: Why doesn't Apple support industry standard FLAC ?

What he said. I'm sure Apple originally wanted to lock users into Apple's universe.

 

[toozeup]

The correct question is still: Why doesn't Apple support industry standard FLAC ?

Ditto, and it ultimately comes down to one reason.... GREED

 

[narabdela]

Ditto, and it ultimately comes down to one reason.... GREED

You'll have to explain that one a bit more.

 

[mikeyb]

Flac is supported on iOS 11

 

[Stunsworth]

Flac is supported on iOS 11

But not in iTunes.

As mentioned above ALAC is open source and royalty free, and has been since 2011.

 

[Engels]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that FLAC was deemed more efficient coding than ALAC, so FLAC decode for streaming is less demanding on the processor. This just possibly has some sonic benefits if the processor at the sending end or receiving end for the DAC is having to work less hard - but I'd bet this would be hard if not impossible to tell in blind listening tests.