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Apple Music Launching Spatial Audio With Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio in June at No Extra Cost

steevn said:
Why would you spend that much on a few songs when you could get tens of millions more songs for the same price?

I flat out don’t even understand your logic lol, you’re saying that you don’t need new music because you’ll be listening to the same songs for decades, but still buy music every year.

If someone said I could pay $100 for 100 songs or $100 for tens of millions I don’t even know what the debate could be about.
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Apple Music doesn't let you keep any of the songs. So let's say you're the type of person that only will ever listen to like 1000 songs. You could buy them all for a dollar each, and spend $1000. But then you have those files forever, with no additional fees. Meanwhile, the same $1000 will only get you a little over 8 years of Apple Music subscription time. After that 8 years, you lose access to everything if you stop paying.

So for people who listen to tons of different music, a subscription makes sense. For people who have a more limited taste, it doesn't make sense.
 
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snapster said:
You've already read all the content on MacRumors -- why did you visit again?
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MacRumours content changes by the second. My music tracks don't. Between 2000 and 2021 I have added the seven songs or so that where missing in my library. I only need to track down one or two more.
 
steevn said:
Why would you spend that much on a few songs when you could get tens of millions more songs for the same price?

I flat out don’t even understand your logic lol, you’re saying that you don’t need new music because you’ll be listening to the same songs for decades, but still buy music every year.

If someone said I could pay $100 for 100 songs or $100 for tens of millions I don’t even know what the debate could be about.
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Seven songs since 2000 added, one or two missing and still to find. 99p a year was very generous. I am happy to re-buy all my music in a better format, that would at most cost £300.
 
I wonder if this will lead to more new songs being mastered (or hopefully older tracks being remastered) in Atmos? At launch, I expect the overlap between the Atmos songs and my own music library will be approximately zero.
 
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ruka.snow said:
At most I spend 99p a year on music. I already own all the music I listen too, why would I buy more?

Edit: Apple can get a £100 or so to upgrade all my existing 256 bit music to the highest quality, but not a subscription for the same music I am going to listen to for the next few decades.
ruka.snow said:
At most I spend 99p a year on music. I already own all the music I listen too, why would I buy more?

Edit: Apple can get a £100 or so to upgrade all my existing 256 bit music to the highest quality, but not a subscription for the same music I am going to listen to for the next few decades.
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You might also like to try um... new music that you haven’t already listened to for decades?
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I’m looking forward to atmos. I’m happy the music industry either doesn’t force a higher rate or Apple decided to absorb it. Apple has historically only resorted to tiers after failing to negotiate with content owners. These types of improvements should be for everyone and all streaming services will end up better thanks to Apple. It is ridiculous that Netflix still does quality tiers when 4K TVs are standard.
 
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For the true audiophile, Apple Music also offers Hi-Resolution Lossless all the way up to 24 bit at 192 kHz.
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I wonder whether this will be supported in combination with an airplay 2 enabled receiver such as a bluesound note or whether it is maxed out at a lower bitrate due to airplay limitations.

Is there any official documentation on this?
 
dantracht said:
Wondering that too. The release says anything with an H1 or W1 chip, so perhaps not, as the OG homepod does not have the chip? Does that also mean it WILL work on homepod mini?
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I’m sure it will be able to process the content. The A8 is capable of doing everything those chips can do. Any limitations would be what they can do with computational audio in that design. It will be interesting to see real world differences.
 
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powerbook911 said:
I personally doubt we'll be able to "upgrade" to lossless for owned music. I'm expecting this will be only for Apple Music tracks, you may be able to download them, but they will vanish when sub ends.

I know I am speculating though.
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I'm hoping your own purchases will at least be matched or uploaded in their original quality instead of lossless music still being downgraded to 256kbps AAC.
 
ruka.snow said:
MacRumours content changes by the second. My music tracks don't. Between 2000 and 2021 I have added the seven songs or so that where missing in my library. I only need to track down one or two more.
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Streaming music catalogs change by the second. The analogy point is you are happy with only old music content while in other media you enjoy fresh content. Many people enjoy fresh content in music too.
 
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iamdmann said:
have you used a pair of HomePods with atmos-audio video content? there is surprisingly good spatial effect. thanks for your helpful comment, though.
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Absolutely. But Homepods themselves don't need to know what Atmos is. Only the playback device needs to.
 
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nt5672 said:
Except for those that have to upgrade their equipment to "iOS 14.6, iPadOS 14.6, macOS 11.4, and tvOS 14.6 or later."

Imagine that.
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What is there to imagine? You might not be aware that sometimes new iPhone/iPad/Mac features require a new OS update.

Copy/paste becoming available with an update to iPhone OS 3.0 comes to mind.
 
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Wait, so you’re saying the millions and millions of dollars Apple and the music industry already makes off monthly music subscriptions is enough for them to be ok with us common people to hear their “artistic” money making work in higher quality? No way.
 
Did I miss the part that says Home Pod is included in the list of devices that support this new music format? It says:

"By default, Apple Music will automatically play Dolby Atmos tracks on all AirPods and Beats headphones with an H1 or W1 chip, as well as the built-in speakers in the latest versions of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, according to Apple."
 
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snapster said:
Streaming music catalogs change by the second. The analogy point is you are happy with only old music content while in other media you enjoy fresh content. Many people enjoy fresh content in music too.
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I have yet to meet a soul that will listen to music past a certain point, usually the decade that they were a teenager. Regardless, Beethoven isn't going to produce a new composition.
 
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Poontaco said:
Absolutely. But Homepods themselves don't need to know what Atmos is. Only the playback device needs to.
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which is why I specified that I was thinking on-device Apple Music playback on HomePod, but that is a very fair point (and in practical use I would generally control the playback via iOS device or Apple TV through HomePod, but wondering if that will be necessary rather than atmos music processing baked into a HomePod update).
 
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