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

[anshuvorty]

if our purchaes match apple music, itll be available nonetheless

The tweet I linked specifically mentioned that it won’t be available for iTunes Match.

 

[matrix07]

Not true -

https://twitter.com/x/status/1394285796123942913

I say nothing about lossless.

or are you saying Apple Music subscriber can NOT upload/match their music? In that case you’re complete wrong.

 

[Orange Bat]

It’s really weird that Apple discontinued HomePod only a couple of months ago. It seems like this announcement coupled with a slightly lower HomePod price might have pushed sales of the hardware. In retrospect, discontinuing HomePod when they did is one of the bigger head scratching decisions Apple has made lately IMO.

 

[Lvivske]

There seems to be a lot of misconceptions and questions going around.


Additionally, even with wireless headphones you can enjoy "lossless", i.e. an improvement in quality. Only what they call "Hi-Res Lossless" requires a DAC (like the dongle) and wired headphones to enjoy, which for the average audiophile is not some shocking news, and they were probably already exclusively using wired headphones anyways.


Let's keep it civil and respect everyone's choices.

How do we get it on... you know....an Apple computer? On MacOS there is no such option described in the press release

Is this lossless audio feature only for iPhone? lol

 

[hajime]

I have an AirpodsMax. Do Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio work under Mac OS?
If listening via Bluetooth, will there be a lost of sound quality?

 

[anshuvorty]

Not sure what to make of that, but disappointing if true. Doesn't make sense to me that you would be punished with lower audio quality for listening to your own purchases.

Apple is a services company, gotta milk you for every penny…

 

[poseidondev]

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.

I also suspect the same, but I purposefully wanted to limit the comment to stuff that was communicated by Apple instead of speculating myself, for clarity sake.

 

[Zadigre]

Price increases before the end of the year. Mark my words…

chalenge accepted.

 

[snapster]

I will only buy music.

Technically, via the EULA on some items acquired digitally, you may be only leasing music for use during your lifespan. Maybe that's relevant to you, maybe not but it does blur the lines of a debate.

 

[jjd]

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..

There are tons of Airplay 2 enabled speakers, amps, receivers... they will get you up to CD quality, but not high res.

 

[tomtendo]

Does this work on the HomePod and Mini?

 

[Lvivske]

The tweet I linked specifically mentioned that it won’t be available for iTunes Match.

yes and he's misspeaking, because match just syncs your cd rips to apple music 'matches'

there's no difference between a Match song and a Music song added to a library

if you're paying for apple music, you get it

edit: i think this was mentioned to make the distinction that its for streaming only. Matched tracks dont get their hard copies upgraded beyond AAC

 

[poseidondev]

How do we get it on... you know....an Apple computer? On MacOS there is no such option described in the press release

Is this lossless audio feature only for iPhone? lol

The option is also not available on iPhone yet.

The Apple Music page (bottom) indicates that it'll become available in macOS 11.4

Available in iOS 14.6, iPadOS 14.6, macOS 11.4, or tvOS 14.6 or later.

 

[Duncan-UK]

This seems so crazy to me honestly, if you spend more than $99/yr buying music you are losing money. You could just add all the songs you have/want and save them, which would be lossless sound when it’s released.

I only had like 100 iTunes songs since it’s inception but I just deleted all of them and added to Apple Music instead.

How do you find and listen to new music without a streaming service?

Maybe the original poster isn't interested in new music? I've got zero interest in current artists and will never pay for a streaming service. I have iTunes Match, which I like very much, but cannot see what Apple Music offers me.

 

[tkermit]

yes and he's misspeaking, because match just syncs your cd rips to apple music 'matches'

there's no difference between a Match song and a Music song added to a library

if you're paying for apple music, you get it

That's not quite true. Matched songs don't have any DRM, songs added from Apple Music do.

It would be incredibly annoying and very un-Apple-like if I had to delete my existing purchases and re-add them from Apple Music in order to take advantage of the higher audio quality though.

 

[anshuvorty]

How do we get it on... you know....an Apple computer? On MacOS there is no such option described in the press release

Is this lossless audio feature only for iPhone? lol

Also, this feature isn’t coming until June…2 more weeks or more…

 

[snapster]

I also suspect the same, but I purposefully wanted to limit the comment to stuff that was communicated by Apple instead of speculating myself, for clarity sake.

As for lack of civility, these are just the examples from within the last 10 minutes:

Fair enough, those came in while I was replying.

 

[eliteoOSX27]

Dumb question… is the original HomePod utilize dolby atmos?

 

[Max_B]

Hello, nice to meet you. I am 62 and am happily discovering new music all the time.

Will be 68 in June and constantly exploring/listening to new music since I subscribed to IM.

 

[jjd]

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.

Why? Airplay 2 supports CD quality streaming and it is widely supported. And it is superior to Aptx-HD. Bluetooth limitations are an issue for AirPods etc, but not for streamers, receivers, amps... Macs.

 

[cola79]

Just want to mention that Amazon includes HD/CD Quality with no additional cost starting from today. No spatial audio, however, lossless quality for everyone is still a good news for those who use echos at home.

Luckily CD Quality is the new standard now.

 

[Mr. Heckles]

All my music is bought from the iTunes Store, I don't have the desire to subscribe to millions of songs when I only want to listen too the ones I already own. It seems we aren't going to be able to pay Apple to upgrade our existing libraries like we did with 128bit to 256bit.

If you buy a 2020 model car and the 2021 has upgraded stuff, are you getting those upgrades for free? No. It’s also like buying CDs years ago and now they have remastered versions out. If you want the remastered versions, you have to buy it again.

 

[Lvivske]

The option is also not available on iPhone yet.

The Apple Music page (bottom) indicates that it'll become available in macOS 11.4

ah yeah i see that now but not what the #7 footnote attatched to

i dont see a launch date on any of these releases, i guess this is for the fall then when or whenever macOS 11.4 launches?

 

[ruka.snow]

You’re one of those people who is pompous enough to think their musical taste surpasses everyone else’s aren’t you? 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.

I don't believe I could have less interest in what music people listen too. Music inherently is just something you put on in the background. Only on this forum have I read that people will listen to new music, but that does not change how people in the real world I have met will hold onto their music collection from their formative years then consider everything else noise. My music tastes started when I turned 16 and started listening to music. I would very much like to buy this music again in higher quality forms.

Your own taste in music is completely irrelevant to me, we are likely not even from the same country so will have vastly different tastes in music.

 

[Kaptajn Haddock]

For no additional cost! Nice. Hopefully this will put a pressure on the competitors to lower their hifi subscription prices, as I am not about to jump from Deezer hifi to Apple Music, simply because Deezer supports more devices, incl. my Squeezebox Touch. I wonder if they will also update our purchased songs from iTunes to ALAC?