iTunes, Lossless, and my digital library

Submitted by PiickelJones t3_11e6pvv in Music

Okay, so I’m just confirming (I think) that I’ve been wasting my time for a while now… (And, BTW, if you just hate iTunes or Apple, that’s super, you do you—whereas I’ve certainly not always used iTunes, at all, or Apple products, I do now, so that’s a discussion for another day and won’t be helpful here; I’d appreciate if you respect that.) So, possibly relevant is that I stopped paying for “ITunes match” some years ago, I think (hell, is it even still a thing?). After being a Pandora lover for years, eventually it wasn’t doing it for me anymore, and suddenly iTunes streaming was and is (that streaming algorithm definitely got an overhaul sometime back), so im completely hooked. But it’s based on a “real” digital library of hundreds upon hundreds (probably over a thousand) of songs. Oftentimes—increasingly often—I’ll go to rate something (for “smart playlist” purposes) and it’ll “act like” the song isn’t in my library 🙄 SO most of the time it’ll turn out that I don’t have the “lossless” version. SO for a good while now, when I’ve seen this for music I really love, I’ve deleted the old album (NOT from my PC, just from my library) and added the updated one w/ the lossless tracks. HOWEVER, I read an article the other day that made me finally truly understand (I think, lol, hence this post) that even with a lossless file, I’m not going to be listening to the “lossless” version… even with the AirPod Pros that were recently gifted to me—now, Dolby digital/Spatial Audio is apparently a different matter, as in it does actually matter (at least there’s something!). Im also assuming that if I have a digital album from the 90s or whatever, and there’s a “digitally remastered” version, there’s probably an improvement there… SO perhaps I know what I need to know, right?? Just,if the only difference is “lossless,” there’s no point in me adding that to my library when I already have an old version in there, right? Except… is there for some reason?? And what I mean, in part, is that I’m a bit obsessed w/ the algorithm. With being able to play the most eclectically-me radio, make the perfect smart playlists, and it bothers me when it says I don’t have an album, LOL, even when I can then look it up and see that “yes, you do, it just doesn’t show any of the artists other albums or info underneath, like it exists in a vacuum, but iTunes must know you have it, cuz you searched and there it is, right , RIGHT????” LOL first world problems, yeah… also, these days it’ll say, “complete album?” when I look these up, as if I’m missing a song, when I’m not, and if o click “yes,” it just also downloads the new version. And then I’m doubled up, which I used to find unbearable, but I’m learning that I need to chops a pet obsession here (okay, I still don’t like it). So, thoughts?

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Fit-Friend-8431 t1_jacvjbq wrote

Just skimmed through this as the lack of paragraphs makes this difficult to read.

I guess the question is do you need lossless? And do you need the remastered version of an album? the long and the short of it is no, you don’t need it.

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PiickelJones OP t1_jacw3pf wrote

Replying to Fit-Friend-8431 (#2,106,807)

Apologies. This became, like, stream-of-consciousness, my god! But yes, that’s a question, but also, a stranger one: would it affect the streaming algorithm in any way to not have, in effect, “their” version of the album? It’s presented that way.

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Torn8Dough t1_jaczea6 wrote

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.

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PiickelJones OP t1_jad15yq wrote

Replying to Torn8Dough (#2,107,990)

AHH! THERE IT IS!! Somehow my neurotic adhd brain KNEW IT! Lolol! THANK YOU! So how this reads to me, what it equates to, is that, sure enough, if I want the algorithm to “know” that “X is one of my favorite albums ever; you should play it often, base suggestions off it, etc,” really I should continue to download—or “add to my library,” rate, and “love”—their new shiney, lossless versions, NOT because it’ll sound better, but because, as you say, it has the “right parts,” the right digital info attached! 😵‍💫🤯😯

DUDE! I could barely figure out what I was asking, and you nailed it!!! Thank you for real! 💜🙏✌️

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PiickelJones OP t1_jad4f8l wrote

Weird and mysterious: algorithms and how/why they work for some some and not from others. In my case, in general it works so well that it tore me from Pandora after years of working on that one (I think initially having my entire library to “look at” and use, whereas pandora didn’t, must have made the difference at that time), and now I’m hell-bent on perfecting this one. I think the other commenters insight may have at least a bit to do with it (I mean, most of my original library was not gotten from Apple, but I’ve been streaming, rating, loving, and also getting their versions for a long time now, so it likely has an impact on the effectiveness…).

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