Music as the Artist and Sound Engineer Intended.

At dB Mastering we are very proud to be one of the few mastering facilities accredited by Apple to provide masters in the Mastered For iTunes (MFiT) format. Please note: There is a difference between the standard iTunes format and MFiT!

So what is Mastered for iTunes and how will your music benefit from being released in the MFiT format?

When making your new release available in the iTunes store, your music will be compressed into the portable m4a file format by Apples latest encoders. While this is a necessary evil, often unwanted artefacts such as distortion are introduced during this process. Choosing the MFiT format provides control over this process.

At dB Mastering we utilise specific technologies which allow us to preview the encoding, resolve any issues that the encoding introduces and finally, create a set of hi-resolution masters for submitting to Apple, ensuring your music will be heard “as the artist and the sound engineers originally intended.” (Apple)

Mastering in High Resolution

Another point of difference between these iTunes formats is that only high-resolution masters are applicable for submission in MFiT. This means that the recording, mixing, and mastering all have to have been done in high resolution with the minimum requirement being 44.1k/24bit. At dB Mastering we accept all HR formats with sample rates from 44.1k up to 192k.

Apple has historically been a leader in the distribution of digital music with the first iTunes store opening in 2003. Since then the quality of the downloads has improved markedly with the MFiT format being the best yet. This is largely due to Apple working together with best the mastering engineers in the world to achieve the best quality downloads possible in the iTunes store.

The portable digital format is here to stay so it’s important to understand how to get the best results from it and impress even the most discerning listener.

If you have any questions about iTunes, MFiT or the online distribution of your music please contact us on 0414 380 699.