"The Beatles" Apple Lossless on iTunes?

"Those looking for the Beatles catalog in the highest possible resolution should consider buying the version on flash drive."

That's what I did last year before the price went up.

And on a slightly more serious note, this FAQ from Apple indicates that music downloaded from the iTunes store is supplied as DRM-free (no copy protection) 256 bps AAC files. To my knowledge, Apple has never offered ALAC (lossless) files in the iTunes store, and if they have any plans to do so in the future, Steve must have somehow forgotten to let me know.

Those looking for the Beatles catalog in the highest possible resolution should consider buying the version on flash drive. It may come as quite a shock to the average effete audiophile, but 99.9% of iTunes store customers don't give a rip about lossless encoding.

And at the risk of obliterating any audiophile cred I might have, before you completely dismiss this format, how about blowing a buck-twenty-nine on one of your favorite tracks to hear what it actually sounds like? While definitely not the last word in quality, you might find they actually sound pretty darn good for all but the most critical listening.

By the way, it seems part of the format confusion has to do with all these abbreviations people fling around: AAC, ALAC, and now Rwwear has raised the ante with Aflac, which sounds like some kind of insurance industry codec where they replace your files if your hard drive crashes.
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Gfroman: Positively smashing idea! And speaking of smashing, I just broke into my local high-end emporium and scored myself a pair of Sonus Faber Stradivari Homage speakers that I've always really wanted!

Cost (so far): nothing!
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Went to my local library and downloaded all the Beatle CD's to my Mac PRO.
Cost nothing!

Looks like Apple would use Aflac.

This is exactly what sucks about all this new downloading of music. The people selling you this stuff won't even tell you what you are getting. Why bother, nobody cares. It is unimportant to the average MP3 user. You can't even ask "the store" a question about it . No, just send them your money along with the other 1000 persons a second who are making them rich VIA unpersonal internet sales. We are allowing the world to "Dumb Down" everything that matters, and here is one more example. McDonalds will soon offer sushi and we listen to music on our telephone!

I understand the benefit of having the CDs. That's what I use, stereo and mono versions. I'm just curious if the iTunes downloads are ALAC, but don't want to purchase to find out. I assume they are 256AAC, but some blogs have stated "Apple Lossless".

Traudio, It makes sense, since download might be gone after hardware/software disaster but unused hard copy will stay forever.

Why pay for a lower rez download version when you could buy the CD's for the same price or less and rip them yourself?

http://www.amazon.com/Beatles-Stereo-Box-Set/dp/B002BSHWUU/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1293554340&sr=1-1