Apple Music to support Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos
Apple announced today that Apple Music is getting support for lossless audio, as well as Apple Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos that was announced and featured in both Apple AirPods Pro and AirPods Max. The new feature will start rolling out in June.
This means that all songs on Apple Music will be available in 16-bit/44.1kHz CD quality or 24-bit/48-192kHz hi-res quality. At launch, only 20 million songs of the 75 million songs library will be available in lossless audio, but the rest will be available by the end of the year.
Also, thousands of songs will be available in Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos. Apple’s press release mentioned that Apple Music will automatically start playing Dolby Atmos tracks on all AirPods and Beats headphones with an H1 or W1 chip, as well as the latest versions of iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Fortunately, Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos will also work on non-Apple headphones (with Dolby Atmos support). If you are using non-Apple headphones, you will just have to switch the Dolby Atmos setting to Always On instead of Automatic.
Apple’s lossless streams will use ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) to provide more information through streaming allowing for higher quality audio. However, this will also mean bigger file sizes. Apple announced three tiers of lossless audio to solve the big file size issue.
Fusers will be able to stream music in 16-bit/44.1kHz, 24-bit/48kHz, and 24-bit/192kHz. To choose between these three options, head to Settings in the Apple Music app, then Music, then Audio Quality. While users can play music up to 24-bit/48kHz on their Apple devices, playing music in 24-bit/96kHz or 24-bit/192kHz quality will require an external DAC.
Apple Music is not the first streaming service to offer lossless audio. Tidal, Deezer, and Amazon Music HD all have a lossless option. Spotify also announced earlier this year that a new Spotify HiFi tier will be available later this year.
Both new features will start rolling out in June for all Apple Music subscribers at no extra cost. That’s right, the subscription price for Apple Music will remain $10 per month.
