According to The Guardian Apple is working on a new audio format-- "adaptive streaming," with either high/low-quality audio files for either downloading or streaming via iCloud.
If one is to believe the report adaptive streaming will provide iCloud users with low- or high-resolution file streaming, depending on the bandwidth and storage available on their devices.
"All of a sudden, all your audio from iTunes is in HD rather than AAC. Users wouldn’t have to touch a thing; their library will improve in an instant," the anonymous source says.
No details on format specifics or release dates are yet available, but The Guardian believes the new streaming technology might debut on the upcoming iPad 3 announcement event.
Earlier this year Neil Young claimed Steve Jobs wanted to develop new high-resolution audio formats as an alternative to MP3 and AAC. The musician insists "what everybody gets [on MP3] is 5% of what we originally make in the studio... We live in the digital age, and unfortunately it's degrading our music, not improving."
Meanwhile Ars Technica claims Apple is now encouraging music companies to provide 24-bit/96kHz audio files to sell (and potentially stream?) on the iTunes service.
Go Apple Developing New Audio File Format to Offer "Adaptive Streaming" (The Guardian)