After that, the audio is compressed even further, into MP3 or AAC at 256kbps (usually), in an effort to minimize download time and the amount of space a track will take up on an end user's hard drive.
Jimmy Iovine, the chairman of Universal Music Group's Interscope-Geffen-A&M record label, seemed very gung-ho about the change back to high quality audio (via CNN):
We've gone back now at Universal, and we're changing our pipes to 24 bit. And Apple has been great. We're working with them and other digital services -- download services -- to change to 24 bit. And some of their electronic devices are going to be changed as well. So we have a long road ahead of us.
The road may indeed be long, as most portable devices (smartphones, media players) lack the ability to play 24-bit audio. Most computers, and iTunes, do have the 24-bit support, however. Apple and other companies would have to upgrade future models of their devices to include support for the higher-quality audio.
If the higher-quality files were to hit digital retailers, they will likely come with a premium, speculates CNN, although any exact figure is still very unclear.