Steve Knopper for Rolling Stone:

Mastered for iTunes unofficially began last year, when producer Rick Rubin was frustrated with his inability to make the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ I’m With You sound as dynamic in the AAC format as it did on a CD. Working with Apple, he tinkered with the master recording, landing on a higher-than-usual bit rate – so when he sent it to iTunes for encoding, it sounded considerably better than a typical compressed audio file. “It’s much closer to the sound of the CD and it took several weeks of additional experimentation and mastering to reach the final iTunes master,” Rubin told MTV News at the time. Some interesting nuggets in here, including news that legendary jazz label Blue Note is reissuing its entire catalog in the new format.

Jim Dalrymple offered his own thoughts on the Mastered for iTunes program back in March. If you missed it, make sure to check it out – Jim explains how the process works.

If you haven’t already checked out Mastered for iTunes albums, chances are there’s something in there for you – already 300 albums (new releases and reissues) have gotten the treatment, with more coming all the time.