Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Difficult to stream on airplanes. Admittedly not much of an issue for me at the moment with air travel severely restricted but one day it will be a consideration for me again. Difficult to stream in any area with a dodgy mobile network connection and no WiFi. Also not everyone has high or unlimited data caps on their mobile phone plans so there can be cost implications especially if you’re on holiday and would need to use roaming data in a place where it’s extortionately expensive. And finally there’s battery life if you’re out and about. It’s far more power efficient to play from local storage than stream over a network especially a mobile phone network. Good for you that your circumstances never give you any of those issues but there are other people out there who aren’t in your situation. As you might have guessed a lot of my music listening is when travelling, out walking, sitting enjoying the sun outdoors somewhere etc.
Yet another common misconception about “streaming services“; yes, you can “stream”, but you can always download ahead of time and play back locally just like you do with the old music model.

When I hear that argument, I often wonder if people are being deliberately obtuse or just not understanding the concept of a music service.
 
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.

It's about curiosity and wonderment.

Some people, often for their whole lives, have minds like a sponge, continuously soaking in new information/knowledge/music/etc that were previously unknown or unexposed to them. Others, sadly, have more sclerotic minds and curiosity levels, having lost their child-like wonderment entering adulthood.
 
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.
Cool, thanks!
 
I am (pleasantly) surprised as I thought Apple would charge extra for this.
AM is an incredible value now, despite the severely flawed MacOS app. If support for lossless audio extends to your own purchases – i.e. uploads and matches – that will be the cherry on top and something that is unmatched (no pun intended) by any other music subscription service. Exciting stuff.
 
Uhmm... I’m gonna be honest. On one hand, I’ve always loved Spotify, it’s been with me since I was very young. I still remember the girl who invited me to the service. Also, competition is good, and I wouldn’t like to see another monopoly or duopoly like the iOS/Android one. Competition benefits consumers.

But on the other hand, leaving the nostalgia out of the equation, I have to admit that, being an Apple user, nowadays I’d prefer Apple Music over Spotify. Aesthetically for me is much nicer than Spotify, it’s better integrated, it has lyrics... my heart is split between the two services but on the long run, I think if I had to pay for one of those services, I would stick to Apple Music.

However, Spotify still offers a free tier supported by ads, and with that and iTunes Match syncing all my music to the cloud, I have enough (for now). At some point I guess I will migrate my Spotify playlists to Apple Music, even if I lose the matching function of iTunes Match.

I wonder if this new Dolby Atmos feature is only available for Apple Music subscribers or it applies to iTunes Match or iTunes purchased music as well...
Apple Music only:
 
I would have said otherwise if there was an exception to the rule.
I understand since your listening style is VERY unique. However, the majority of the world isn’t stuck in a frozen era of music in which they refuse to try anything new. So for you buying all your favourites from 1970 and being done makes sense. However, the rest of the world exists in a forward moving momentum and people enjoy trying new music and artists daily thus subscription services are much cheaper than outright purchasing tracks.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
AM is an incredible value now, despite the severely flawed MacOS app. If support for lossless audio extends to your own purchases – i.e. uploads and matches – that will be the cherry on top and something that is unmatched (no pun intended) by any other music subscription service. Exciting stuff.
It doesn’t support our own purchases, just for Apple Music -
 
Until Apple starts to support higher quality bluetooth codecs this will be pointless for most people. Cannot see them adding LDAC (which is snake oil anyway IMO) or APTX-HD.

The no extra cost thing makes sense, I had a feeling they might do it. Only additional cost would be bandwidth/storage and it is good to see the audio quality question for digital music being taken off of the table finally in 2021. Looks like Spotify have been caught sitting on their hands.
 
  • Like
Reactions: E.Lizardo
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.
Some of us have been in the iTunes ecosystem since the beginning, and we amassed impressive collections of songs/albums purchased though the iTunes store back when we were syncing this music to iPods. We don't need to pay $9.99/month to listen to this music; we already paid for it. Also, some people do a substantial amount of listening where wifi may not be readily available (e.g., while traveling or enjoying nature).

I'm always surprised by people's inability to see beyond their own use case. An Apple Music subscription works for you; enjoy. But you shouldn't question the logic of people who don't want to pay additional money to access songs they'll never listen to just because they want to hear higher-quality versions of the songs they've already paid for.
 
So on what hardware am I supposed to play this lossless audio on apple?
You’ve discontinued HomePod and don’t sell any airplay 2 receiver for conventional speakers..
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: chabig and Poontaco
There seems to be a lot of misconceptions and questions going around.

For now, Atmos is specifically mentioned for HomePod as well. They don't specifically mention the HomePod for lossless.

...

Let's keep it civil and respect everyone's choices.
While FLAC / lossless isn't mentioned for HomePod in the latest announcement, the HomePod (OG) is FLAC compatible. Worst case, you can Airplay 2 the CD/Redbook quality lossless to the HomePod. Honestly it would still just be astonishing if it didn't direct stream to it though.

Not seeing a lack of civility here in responses to the outlier "all new music sucks" opinion; just some humorous responses.
 
  • Like
Reactions: E.Lizardo
At most I spend 99 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.
I think your point certainly sounds more logical than using a streaming service. However, when I was only using my own music that I purchased, I noticed something.

I ended up listening to the same few songs over and over and over and had an eclectic mix of genres and individual songs that didn’t always fit well together into playlists. I have a wide interest in music that changes throughout the day and year. Even after years of acquiring music, I would grow tired of hearing some songs and have to buy a raft of new ones to change it up. (And I don’t listen to contemporary pop stuff either)

With a streaming service, I immediately noticed I was listening to WAY more music, more variety, broader playlists etc. not to mention other family members having more choice.

If I’m buying each song I’d like to listen to and those of my wife, it is almost as expensive and a far worse overall experience. Really the streaming service isn’t as bad as you make it out to be. But to each their own.

And let’s remember, like our apps and software, I don’t think we “own” the music anyway. You’re leasing it. I could be wrong on this but that’s how it’s been described to me. It’s just a longer lease. But if Apple were ever to tank or cancel iTunes, you wouldn’t have access to “your” music anymore.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tooloud10
You can always try 3rd party apps to convert regular MP3s into Dolby, 5.1, 7.1 Surround. I've had some luck with that in the past with audio, video...some fails.

The official Dolby Atmos conversion tool IS free to download here.

I've never tried this program, I'll give it a shot though.
*Just need to sign up for a FREE Dolby acct.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MrUNIMOG
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.