How to get the Apple Digital Masters badge on your release

What the badge is

It is the mark Apple puts on a release that was prepared and encoded to its own standard. On Apple Music, the release carries the words Apple Digital Master on its page.

It means the file Apple receives is a full quality master, and that the version people stream comes from it directly, without losing anything on the way.

Why it is worth having

• People see it. The mention sits on the release page, next to the artwork. A listener does not need to know what mastering is to notice it.
• Your master survives intact. Apple receives the whole high resolution master, not a cut down version. On lossless, listeners hear exactly the file you signed off in the studio, at the peak of its audio resolution.
• Your dynamics survive. Attacks, depth and the quiet moments make it online instead of being flattened on the way.
• It proves you met a published standard. Labels, press, sync supervisors and playlist curators can see it at a glance, and few independent releases have it.
• In a playlist, your track holds up. It went through the same standard as the major label releases playing around it.

One thing to be clear about: it is a quality mark, not a promotion tool. Apple does not push a release further because it carries the badge. What it does is remove any doubt about how your file was made.

What Apple asks for

This is where most releases fail, and none of it is negotiable.

• A 24-bit master, at least. Your real full quality file, 32-bit float included. A 16-bit file pushed up to look like 24-bit does not count.
• The sample rate you actually worked in. 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4 or 192 kHz. No converting it up, no converting it down.
• Headroom before the red. Leave at least 1 dB. A level that looks fine on your master can still distort once it is encoded.
• An encode made to Apple’s standard. By an approved encoding house.

And one thing Apple never asks for: a loudness target. There is no LUFS figure in the programme. Anyone who tells you the badge requires a specific loudness made it up.

The four steps

1. Export your master at full quality. At the rate you worked in, with at least 1 dB of headroom. Nothing later fixes this step.

2. Encode it, then listen to the encode. You have to go through an encoding and mastering house approved for Apple Digital Masters. Skills & Gears is the only one offering it with unlimited use.

3. Use a distributor that takes part. Not all of them do. Ask before you release, not after.

4. The encoding house is checked. Your distributor verifies it before the release reaches Apple: the house has to be approved by Apple Music and sit on their internal list. If it does not, your release goes out as an ordinary file.

Why the badge did not show up

Two causes explain most of them:

• The encode did not come from a provider certified and approved by Apple Music.
• The master was 16-bit, or a 16-bit file pushed up to look like 24-bit.

Your next release can carry the badge

Skills & Gears is an encoding house recognised and approved by Apple Music. It gives you access to the Apple Digital Masters certification and the badge that comes with it. AM.Pro2 is the module that produces the encode: it builds the file Apple asks for, checks it against the specification, and lets you hear the result before anything leaves.

The subscription also includes EC.Pro4, which gives you lossless sound on every platform, and the EM.Pro2, a module built to master every release you put out, with no limit.

It is the most complete set of tools an independent artist can get to release music at the sound quality of the industry majors. 49 dollars a year, unlimited use.