A long time ago, I learned that Apple Music uses exact “SKU’s” (I don’t know what they call them in Appleland), but think of it as a part number. Way back, during the iPod craze, after a while, I had multiple of the same song. I also lost a bunch of music (this was before cloud existed). In discussing a few issues with Apple, they said that the reason I had multiple of the same is because the part number is different. Even though it’s exactly the same song. And regarding lost music, the reason I could not get certain songs back is because the part number changed and they no longer carry the older part number.

I assume they still do this the same way. So, you can download the exact song/album, but to the app, it’s a different album/song. But, it’s really the same to you and me. From me simpleton way of thinking, this is a glitch, and one of the many problems with the digital world. I can think of a lot of reasons why it works this way. But, we can’t fix it since we’re consumers. Someone at App,e has to care enough about the problem to resolve it. And, they don’t care at all about it. So, there you go.

Spotify and Pandora have the exact same issue. So, it probably has to do with how the music is categorized from the publishers. For instance, a song on a compilation album will have a different part number than a song from the original album. A song from a remastered or re-release will be different than it original. So, you could have 3 or 4 copies of the same song on your playlist with the app thinking they are different from each other.

I can’t talk to the lossless feature. I’m not really that into a perfect sound. I don’t have any listening equipment that would make me notice. An iPhone with headphones is as close as I’m ever going to get, and for that, you don’t need lossless, no matter how good your headphones are.