I’ve maintained a Qobuz subscription for their lossless & hi-res Deutsche Grammophon classical content. Given DGs curated channel on Apple Music, which I use regularly on account of their awesome playlists, having DMs content in lossless, hi-res and.or Atmos on Apple Music would be insanely great (to use an old Jobs superlative). EDIT: DG related quote, right there in the press release
Yup, looks like HDTracks and Quobuz and 7digital will still be the only places to buy, not rent, music in high quality.
Glad I made the switch from Spotify to Apple Music a few months ago. This makes it easily the best option for streaming music subscription on the market.
That blows. Seems a wasted opportunity but whatever, it's clear they want to push people to the streaming platform.
It would not surprise me if they up iTunes buys to lossless. Once the switch is live in June, test it out.
This is big! The lack of lossless was really the only dent in the Apple Music armor. Even if the sound quality improvement will not always be noticeable (will Dolby Atmos and Spatial Audio surely are, based on what I've heard so far), the extra "value" they're giving with lossless is great. I was already pretty much committed to Apple Music (as part of my Apple One family plan), but now basically I'm locked in forever
i think it's an extra $10/month. Amazon Music HD cuts price as Apple Music Lossless launches | AppleInsider edit: i am wrong. Apple Music announces Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio
I really want them to offer it for purchase. It would make purchasing certain things so much easier that I can't be bothered to import on CD.
Based on one of the comments its $9.99 extra for Dolby Atmos and Spatial. Lossless is part of the standard $9.99 subscription.
I would say that management over at Qobuz/TIDAL/Deezer and others will be wondering what kind of hit their subscriber base will take. This is basically the end of the line in terms of audio quality to be offered by Apple. Official Apple announcement Apple Music announces Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio Apple Music announces Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos; will bring Lossless Audio to entire catalog The next generation of sound on Apple Music is coming to subscribers June 2021 at no additional cost CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today announced Apple Music is bringing industry-leading sound quality to subscribers with the addition of Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos. Spatial Audio gives artists the opportunity to create immersive audio experiences for their fans with true multidimensional sound and clarity. Apple Music subscribers will also be able to listen to more than 75 million songs in Lossless Audio — the way the artists created them in the studio. These new features will be available for Apple Music subscribers starting next month at no additional cost. “Apple Music is making its biggest advancement ever in sound quality,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and Beats. “Listening to a song in Dolby Atmos is like magic. The music comes from all around you and sounds incredible. Now we are bringing this truly innovative and immersive experience to our listeners with music from their favorite artists like J Balvin, Gustavo Dudamel, Ariana Grande, Maroon 5, Kacey Musgraves, The Weeknd, and so many more. Subscribers will also be able to listen to their music in the highest audio quality with Lossless Audio. Apple Music as we know it is about to change forever.” Lossless Audio Apple Music will also make its catalog of more than 75 million songs available in Lossless Audio. Apple uses ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) to preserve every single bit of the original audio file. This means Apple Music subscribers will be able to hear the exact same thing that the artists created in the studio. To start listening to Lossless Audio, subscribers using the latest version of Apple Music can turn it on in Settings > Music > Audio Quality. Here, they can choose different resolutions for different connections such as cellular, Wi-Fi, or for download. Apple Music’s Lossless tier starts at CD quality, which is 16 bit at 44.1 kHz (kilohertz), and goes up to 24 bit at 48 kHz and is playable natively on Apple devices. For the true audiophile, Apple Music also offers Hi-Resolution Lossless all the way up to 24 bit at 192 kHz.1 Producer Piper Payne said: “The soul and life of the mix is sitting in the extra bits of data that are stored in the lossless file. As a mastering engineer, having the ability to convey the music to the listener at its highest quality is the end goal of what I work for every day.” Availability Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio will be available to Apple Music subscribers at no additional cost. Thousands of tracks will be available in Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos at launch, with more added regularly. Apple Music’s catalog of more than 75 million songs will be available in Lossless Audio. more information in link
Amazing news. I can't believe it, really! Maybe I'm interpreting this wrongly, but it seems they're going to call everything up to 24/48 "Lossless" - and thus be able to stream that through Bluetooth. I know aptX HD is capable of this already, but there have been some qualms regarding the connection quality. Let's hope Apple have something up their sleeve here.
I wonder if Apple’s planning to introduce an update to the way AirPods stream music. After all, it’s a bit silly to go lossless just to stream over the current Bluetooth limitations.
Is additional equipment needed for spatial and/or dolby atmos? My Yamaha wxc-50 supports 192/24 so no issues with the high res. Spatial and Dolby will be more of a curiosity addition for me, but wondering how it really works. Is it just a processing trick?
Figured this would be as good of time as any to remind classical music fans about Concertino (I have no affiliation). It's a free app that helps you create a "radio station" of classical genres, and of course will be lossless next month! It's a great tool for a classical novice like myself. I'm looking forward to hearing it in better quality.
Dolby Atmos is a "flavor" of Spatial Audio. Yes it works on regular headphones and HDMI AVRs. You'll need to use an Apple TV 4K to send lossless Spatial Audio to an AVR (via HDMI).
It wouldn't make sense to keep selling iTunes Plus files now that this cat is out of the bag. Unless they close iTunes altogether (and why would they do that now?) we'll likely get different price tiers, like we have with movies today. My optimistic guess is that we'll also be able to upgrade our already purchased files, like we did from 128 to 256, now that the baseline has moved.
Apple charges the same price for HD movies as they do the 4K version. As such, I would expect no "upcharge" for a lossless song. But I guess we'll see next month
Yes and no. Dolby Atmos for cinema uses an object base sound system, rather than channel based. The processor understands how many speakers the system has and what their configuration relative to each other is. It then uses sound objects (a car horn, a line of dialogue, a gunshot, a music cue) and can map them into the 3 dimensional space (x, y & z co-ordinates and ‘volume’). Atmos in the home uses a 7.1 Dolby TrueHD (lossless 24/96) or Dolby Digital Plus (lossy 24/48) ‘bed’ then maps in objects within the 3D space. Systems can vary from 5.1.2 (traditional 5.1, 3 front speakers, 2 surrounds) + .1 sub) with .2 height channel speakers up to 11.2.4 (2 subs, 4 height channel speakers). Apple’s Spatial Audio can use this 3D soundstage + processing to create a virtualised 3D soundstage via 2 channel headphones (same as virtual headphones). When use in conjunction with 5.1 or Atmos movies/supported services like Disney+, the effect has the centre channel + headphones sounding as though they are originating from the iPhone/iPad, rather than between ones own ears as with 2 channel stereo stereo. The surrounds then appear to originate around the ‘back’ & ‘sides’ of one head. It sound gimmicky, and I was prepared to be underwhelmed by it. Instead I found the effect uncanny, particularly with sounds appearing to originate and staying locked to my iphone, regardless of how I moved my head. Imagine someone talking on screen. You look directly at the screen and the sound appears to originate in front of you, from the screen itself. Move you head to look to the left of the phone and the sound pans to stay locked to the phone, now sounding to originate from somewhere beyond your right ear. No, the effect it no serious substitute for a decent Atmos capable home system - the effect is trounced by my own rather modest 5.1.2 Atmos system in the lounge. I love the effect when watching 5.1 & Atmos TV shows on my iPhone using AirPods Pro though, and will be doing from my M1 iPad Pro on Friday, Tidal & Amazon’s music services have some Atmos content I’ve tried out via the lounge (Beatles Abbey Road, REM’s Automatic for the People), which compared well to my BluRays of the same from the box sets. I’m not expecting Apple’s Spatial Audio for music to employ the ‘device locking’ effect they use for films, but the potential for 3D soundstage of Atmos mixed albums on Apple Music has me hugely excited.
