Apple Lossless format now available

All albums on Magnatune are now downloadable in Apple Lossless format, which works and sounds great with iPods and iTunes.

The great features about this format are:

• the audio is a perfect copy of the CD audio master. They sound fantastic!
  
• full metadata (genre, artist/album, even album art) is embedded in the file
  
• works perfectly with iTunes and iPods. All our audio files are tagged with "grouping: Magnatune" so you can create a smart playlist to find them.

FLAC and WAV are two other "perfect audio quality" formats that we also support. FLAC, in particular, works well with alternative audio programs as it does support good metadata (which WAV does not).

As part of this rollout, we also completely rebuilt all AAC files to have a tag of "grouping: Magnatune" so you can create a smart playlist to find them.

iPhone app for background music for restaurants and businesses

Our companion company MoodMixes has just released a free and gorgeous iPhone app, which is just the ticket for those of you who want background music in your restaurant, store or business.

Here is what our background music iPhone app does:

• lets you play background music for your business directly from an iPhone or iPod touch
  
• features a simple flip-through-the-genres interface. Tap the image to play. Simple!
  
• plays music without needing any permanent connection to the Internet: shows are automatically stored on your iPhone.
  
• automatically downloads new music daily when the Internet is available, transparently rotating in new music.
  
• You can subscribe directly from iTunes and have Apple charge you the monthly fee, or you can sign up with MoodMixes and enter your name/password into the iPhone app.
  
• Has full support for shows that you create for yourself using the MoodMixes web site. These appear as new "Your shows" graphics in the app to the right of the standard genres.
  
• Automatically supports both "shuffle-play" and "album-at-a-time" versions of our shows.
  
• Lets you disable genres (shows) you don't want your staff playing (i.e., Hip Hop or Intense Rock), giving them a limited choice of music that's appropriate for your venue.
  
• full support for Apple's "Airplay" standard, letting you pipe music to remote speakers using inexpensive "Airport Express" devices.
  

You can click here to install the app using iTunes, or just search for "MoodMixes" in the app store using your iPhone/iPod touch.

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Here are two pictures showing the classical and chill out genres, which you access by flipping right or left with your finger:

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The currently playing song is automatically displayed:

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You can double-tap an genre image if you want to see a list of downloaded episodes, as well as choose to play specific episodes. However, most people won't bother with this and will simply single-tap the genre and let the music play automatically.