Editing Apple Lossless Audio Codec (section)

==History==
The [[data compression]] software for encoding into ALAC files, Apple Lossless Encoder, was introduced into the Mac OS X [[Core Audio]] framework on April 28, 2004, together with the [[QuickTime]] 6.5.1 update, thus making it available in [[iTunes]] since version 4.5 and above, and its replacement, the Music application.<ref name="MW info 1">{{Cite web|title=QuickTime 6.5.1 adds Lossless Encoder, improves AAC|url=http://www.macworld.com/article/1031552/quicktime.html|website=[[Macworld]]|access-date=2016-01-24|date=2004-04-28}}</ref> The codec is also used in the [[AirPort]] and [[AirPlay]] implementation.

David Hammerton and [[Serafina Brocious]] analyzed and [[Reverse engineering|reverse engineered]] the codec without any documents on the format. On March 5, 2005, Hammerton published a simple [[Open-source software|open source]] decoder written in the [[C (programming language)|C programming language]] on the basis of the work.<ref name="ALAC-reverse">{{cite web|year=2004|title=ALAC|url=http://craz.net/programs/itunes/alac.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120620124229/http://craz.net/programs/itunes/alac.html|archive-date=June 20, 2012|access-date=June 27, 2012|publisher=Crazney.net}}</ref>

The Apple Lossless Encoder (and decoder) were released as open source software under the [[Apache License]] version 2.0 on October 27, 2011.<ref name="Apache-license">{{cite web|url=http://alac.macosforge.org|title=Apple Lossless Audio Codec|publisher=MacOS Forge|date=October 27, 2011|access-date=October 29, 2011}}</ref><ref name="Apache-ars">{{cite web|last=Foresman|first=Chris|title=After seven years, Apple open sources its Apple Lossless Audio Codec|url=https://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/10/after-seven-years-apple-open-sources-its-apple-lossless-audio-codec.ars|publisher=Ars Technica|date=October 28, 2011|access-date=October 29, 2011}}</ref><ref name="Apache-3">{{cite web|url=http://h-online.com/-1368212|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515214941/http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Apple-open-sources-its-ALAC-lossless-audio-codec-1368212.html|archive-date=15 May 2012|title=Apple open sources its ALAC lossless audio codec|first=Chris|last=von Eitzen|publisher=[[The H]]|date=October 28, 2011|access-date=October 29, 2011}}</ref>

On May 17, 2021, Apple announced that they would begin offering lossless audio in [[Apple Music]] in June 2021, with all lossless music being encoded using ALAC.<ref>{{cite web |title=Apple Music announces Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio |url=https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/05/apple-music-announces-spatial-audio-and-lossless-audio/ |website=Apple Newsroom |quote=Apple Music will also make its catalog of more than 75 million songs available in Lossless Audio. Apple uses ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) to preserve every single bit of the original audio file. This means Apple Music subscribers will be able to hear the exact same thing that the artists created in the studio.}}</ref>