Apple is brewing something very, very interesting for its Music platform, as it announced that it will offer Lossless audio and Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos starting June 2021 at no additional cost.
Spatial Audio aims to deliver a more immersive audio experience, offering multi-dimensional audio to select tracks. On the other hand, Lossless Audio means that all 75 million songs in Apple Music’s library will have CD-like sound quality.
For Spatial Audio, All AirPods and Beats with an H1 or W1 chip and the latest iPhones, iPads, and Macs will be needed to utilize this feature. Unlike with Lossless Audio, a few thousand songs will have Spatial Audio at launch, though Apple is working to release more tracks with Spatial Audio in the future. Aside from Spatial Audio, Apple is also working with Dolby Laboratories to make Dolby Atmos available to more tracks as well.
“Dolby Atmos on Apple Music [is] a new music experience that is transforming how music is created by artists and enjoyed by their fans,” Dolby Laboratories’ president and CEO Kevin Yeaman said.
To make Lossless Audio possible, Apple uses its in-house ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), where users can select various bitrates from 16 bit at 44.1 kHz to 24 bit at 48 kHz. If you have a dedicated DAC, Apple Music will let you stream true HiFi audio at 24 bit at 192 kHz. Unlike Spatial Audio, Lossless Audio is not supported by AirPods, AirPods Pro, or AirPods Max–as all three wireless audio devices are limited to AAC codec. To enjoy lossless audio, users would need to use wired headphones–that means using a dongle if you are an iPhone user.
Apple Music is the latest platform to offer lossless audio, as it follows Tidal for offering both lossless audio and Dolby Atmos. While other platforms like Amazon, Spotify, and Deezer offer lossless audio, Apple Music stands out as it is offering the service at no added cost.
