What Makes Music ‘Mastered For iTunes’ More Special?

AAs the years roll by, Technology continues to change the way we record sound and listen to it; the new formats are embraced with a lot of enthusiasm during their first few years of being introduced to the market leaving sound engineers and technicians to grapple with adapting while more advancements continue to be made – this has always been from the era of the Vinyl to that of the CD and the present digital formats and, will not change.

Many consumers share the view that music in digital format is a transitional result of compromised quality. What more can we expect from the convenience its existence brings? Regardless of this consumers continue to hope that quality of digital music improves at the same rate that the bandwidth and capabilities of its players offer. It is in the quest for “better sound” – the best there possibly is that has led us here to the season of “Mastered for iTunes“.

Image Credit: Emmey at Flickr.com

Mastering a record entails taking a raw, mixed song and transferring it into another format while adjusting to make sure that all the information being transferred into the new medium sounds as good as possible despite the new medium’s limitations.

A select few still argue that the sound quality in “Mastered for iTunes” music bears no improvement but most consumers can agree on one thing – its end results could be for better or worse. If we could put aside our reservations for a few minutes and consider the benefits of “Mastered for iTunes” we will find that it gives consumers a much better listening experience. In Apple’s calculation a song “mastered for iTunes” has superior sound while still remaining in its portable form as transferred into millions of phones and other mobile listening devices. But in the instance that it ends up sounding worse for being mastered for iTunes I guess this standard outcome may not apply.

To some, “Mastered for iTunes” is not just a badge of quality. Like it or not millions of people listen to music via iTunes just like millions listened to cassettes back in the day despite the existence of other higher quality options, then and now and on the other hand others do not share these preferences.

If you want to set your music aside from the sea of unknown music floating on the internet I recommend that stamping the “Mastered for iTunes” badge on it is the best route to go and a good step in the right direction. On the other hand if you can manage to work passed being in the position of using this feature to gain some notice for your music on your iTunes then by all means go ahead.

This line of thought is all just my personal opinion. But I would love to know what you think.

The following guest post comes from Christine Ben-Ameh, independent artist & songwriter, currently signed with JTV Digital, a digital distribution company allowing artists & labels to get their music to major digital retail stores and monetize their content online.