> That view would put it in competition with iTunes (320kps AAC/MP3 ought to be enough for anybody?)
Apple has its own lossless audio codec that's supported by iTunes called ALAC. Created in 2004, it was initially propriety but as of 2011 it is now open source and royalty free under the Apache License.
No idea why you're getting downvoted, we use ALAC in production workflows. Prior to being open sourced it was also successfully reverse engineered in 2005: http://craz.net/programs/itunes/alac.html
