I've been studying the third edition of Bobby Owsinski's "The Mixing Engineer's Handbook". In addition to many other details he mentions preparing a song for iTunes.

Songs distributed on iTunes are encoded for distribution by Apple using an exclusive encoding scheme they developed. The iTunes store has an app mastering engineers can use to test and verify a song is "iTunes Ready" prior to submitting a song.

In addition to other requirements, the audio file should be rendered at 24 bits and 96kHz. Apple says the intent of this requirement is to future proof the high fidelity quality of the audio file as encoding schemes change in the future.

Submitted files that meet the requirements and pass the app test are identified with an iTunes ready icon.


Jim Fogle - 2025 BiaB (Build 1128) RB (Build 5) - Ultra+ PAK
DAWs: Cakewalk Sonar - Standalone: Zoom MRS-8
Laptop: i3 Win 10, 8GB ram 500GB HDD
Desktop: i7 Win 11, 12GB ram 256GB SSD, 4 TB HDD
Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home