Apple is reportedly working on a new audio format that's supposedly all about enabling a better streaming and downloading for users of Apple's iTunes Match service. The new format should hopefully enable Apple to increase the quality of audio being delivered without increasing its file size. The same format could also be an adaptive streaming format so a lower quality audio stream could also be delivered in times of low bandwidth availability. According to UK newspaper The Guardian:

It is believed that Apple will use the new file type to upgrade its iTunes Match service, which allows users to re-download music from iCloud to their Apple devices. A source with inside knowledge of the process says Apple has asked a London studio to prepare audio files for a new streaming format that will adapt to bandwidth or hardware capabilities. "All of a sudden, all your audio from iTunes is in HD rather than AAC. Users wouldn't have to touch a thing – their library will improve in an instant," said the source, who requested to remain anonymous.

Musician Neil Young claimed back in January that modern digital music was so highly compressed that 95 percent of the audio content was lost. He believed that Steve Jobs was working on a solution to the problem. The recent Mastered for iTunes seems like the first steps towards that. Maybe this new audio format is another?

Source: The Guardian

Canadian musician Neil Young has claimed in an interview that Steve Jobs preferred listening to music played back on vinyl rather than digitally via an iPod. Speaking to Peter Kafka and Walt Mossberg at the D: Dive Into Media conference, he told them that he discussed the prospect of offering higher quality digital music downloads with Steve Jobs.

“Steve Jobs was a pioneer of digital music, and his legacy is tremendous,” Young said. “But when he went home, he listened to vinyl. And you’ve gotta believe that if he’d lived long enough, he would have eventually done what I’m trying to do.”

Source: Macworld, Image: All Things D

According to Digitial Music News, eight years and almost as many strategies later, Walmart is closing their MP3 Music Download store its $0.88 tracks in the face of insurmountable competition from Apple's iTunes and associated devices like iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

"After eight years in business, the Walmart Music Downloads Store located at mp3.walmart.com will close on August 28, 2011. All content in the Store will be disabled and no longer available for download from the store.

"The sale of physical record music products on Walmart.com as well as in Walmart US retail stores will remain unaffected. Walmart Soundcheck (soundcheck.walmart.com) will remain operational as a live streaming site without any download options."

They'll keep the DRM servers running for customers who purchased WMA music before Walmart switched to unprotected MP3.

Still, Walmart gets added to Yahoo! Music Unlimited, MTV URGE, AOL MusicNow, MusicMatch Jukebox, and growing list of others to exist the music download business. Which is unfortunate because iTunes needs rivals, and not just subscription services like Rdio, Spotify, Zune, Slacker, Pandora, etc., or music lockers like Amazon Cloud or Google Music Beta.

Amazon MP3 is still going strong, though Amazon has failed to grow the service internationally, and has yet to begin offering associated devices of their own, like their much-rumored Android-based tablet. Is the age of downloadable music, outside of iTunes, simply coming to an end?

[Digital Music News]

VLC is a popular media player that supports countless audio and video codecs and multiple file formats. Because of such versatility, a lot of folks use VLC as their computer's main video player. And now thanks to ZodTTD, it's available for the iPhone (jailbroken ones only, sorry)!

The project is currently in private beta but a public release is planned for 'very soon'. In its current iteration, VLC supports drag and drop files for MPEG/MPG, AVI, and MP3 formats. Support for FLAC and OGG are well on their way and they are currently researching playback for DivX, VCD, WMA, and WMV. The project is even asking for YOUR input on what codecs you want to see supported, feel free to click the Read link to let your voice be heard.

I firmly believe that this will be a game changing program for the iPhone and the jailbreaking scene in general. Imagine being able to play ANY video format like the desktop version of VLC, that freedom from iTunes will undoubtedly lead people to jailbreaking. Keep up the good work ZodTTD!

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