There’s a few typos in this, from a German source
Apple has now announced that the HD format "Master for iTunes“Is no longer to be supplied exclusively in 44,1 kHz sample rate, but can now also be supplied with up to 96 kHz sample rate.
By default, Apple now delivers audio streaming in 48 kHz sample rate.
Services such as Spotify and Amazon Music also save tracks with higher sample rates by default.
So it is only a matter of time before the other providers will deliver in 48 kHz as standard in the future.
Quote from Bob Katz:
Apple will losslessly stream it at 96k, and they will downsample it to 48k and lossy encode it and stream that at 48k for their lossy service. So Apple’s lossy stream gets a serious upgrade, as AAC at 48k sounds significantly better than at 44.1k.