Apple and U2 working on ‘new digital music format’

Apple and U2 are working in a secret project on a new music format that will guarantee artists get paid for their work. According to the singer of U2, Bono, there will be so many advantages to the format that users will want to pull out their wallets.

Bono didn’t give Time details about the format, but he does make it clear that piracy would not be possible, which seems to indicate the presence of some form of DRM. “It will be an audiovisual, interactive format for music, bringing back album art in the most powerful way,” Bono said in an interview. Also, he says, users can “play with the lyrics” and see photography in a way “like never before.” It would not only be a format for albums, but also for individual songs. U2 expects to use the format for the first time in about a year and a half, with the release of Songs of Experience.

The U2 manager gave Billboard hints about the arrival of a new format last week. In addition to lyrics and artwork, he also mentioned video clips that should ensure that listeners can become ‘more immersed in the music than just with MP3’. It is unknown whether the format also brings improvements in the quality of the audio.

In the past, there have been rumors that Apple would come up with a high-quality audio reproduction technology. Recently, Neil Young released his Pono format for 24bit audio at 192kHz and some streaming services offer support for the lossless compression format flac.