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More Than Half of Apple Music Listeners Using Spatial Audio, Says Apple Exec

Wait more than half of the people don't know how to turn it off?

I like the idea of spatial audio actually, but it doesn't work well with every song. And it's too bad they don't have a toggle right on the player. Having to go into settings means that I just leave it permanently off.
 
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neuropsychguy said:
This test suggests otherwise about the DAC for the 6s: https://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-6s-plus-audio-quality.htm
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There were a lot of theories at the time whether it was an issue with certain devices, e.g. they made the iPhone 6S with some CPUs by TSMC and some by Samsung; perhaps not all were affected.

That guys tests would suggest his was OK but I had both phones side by side because I bought the iPhone 6S plus when my 6 plus screen broke. The 6 sounded great and the 6S was very poor sounding with a high level of background noise. There were a ton of threads at the time on this.

Between that and the iPhone 6 actually having a slightly higher nits display than the 6S, I think there were some corners cut.
 
I never listen to music with headphones. I employ a pair of decent powered monitors for my computer. Then the home theater’s full Atmos for when I want to jam mad levels. I do on occasion fire up a HomePod for bedtime tunes or sounds.
 
JCCL said:
Love lossless, but spatial audio just sounds weird. They sound like hacked fan-made mixes, have this turned off.
Click to expand...
Agree. To me spatial audio only makes sense for mixes that were actually made for it which is a rare find on AM.

Yes, there are many mixes that say they’re made for it but it’s clearly just some audio algorithm template or something they’ve run it through.

For mixes that aren’t made for spatial audio, it just sounds like there’s been applied the same amount on reverb on most of the tracks which sounds odd.

It’s especially bad on the lead vocals since they’re clearly supposed to be as upfront and in your face as possible. But spatial audio pushes them back.

Spatial audio should be a toggle for every track individually and not a toggle for all tracks at once that you can only access through Settings.
 
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It’s a shame they said they won’t be bringing any of these upgrades to tracks on the iTunes Store, like they have in the past for other things for a small fee. It makes it feel like those purchases are now kind of worthless. I know I can download the tracks again on AM, but I don’t like to throw stuff away lol
 
Speaking of Apple Music app.
When I want to listen I search for an artist and choose top songs and play that list. Unfortunately they show and play the same songs over and over again instead of removing duplicates and I have to skip a lot. :(
 
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I’m glad I’m not the only one who liked spatial audio. I don’t normally like software trickery to give virtual surround sound but apple spatial audio actually got me moving from Spotify to Apple Music subscription… and listening to same songs back to back reveal just how much more enjoyable Apple Music is on AirPods Pro.
 
Apple may also offer music in mind-boggling hires formats but until Airplay turns it into AAC format, it is of little use.
I prefer TIDAL, which for the same price at least provides CD quality.
 
Atmos/Spatial audio for Music is very new and engineers are still learning the ropes. But Spatial audio (that is, object-oriented audio) is here to stay and mixes will improve over time...
 
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iosfan1991 said:
"We have every song in our catalog available in Lossless to us delivered by the industry, but the challenge is it doesn't play on any headphone in the world over Bluetooth or any wireless connection, and that is by a country mile the number one way how people consume music these days."

Yeah, Bluetooth is the number one method because you removed the built in 3.5mm port from all your phones and the Lightning to 3.5mm port has a terrible DAC inside.

For people who don't remember; the iPhone 6 had a really good sounding DAC inside that was based on Apple's experience with iPods, with the iPhone 6S they put a cost reduced DAC inside that sounded a lot worse, so that the year after when the iPhone 7 (which was released with only Bluetooth), wireless headphones wouldn't sound too jarringly worse for people who "upgraded"!

Put the 3.5mm port back, admit you got it wrong already, and these "challenges" disappear.
Click to expand...

While you are right that its removal created some issues, they will not be solved by going back to the past. Technology almost never does.

I'm sorry to tell you, but the 3.5mm jack is not coming back.
 
MacRumors said:


In an interview with Billboard, Apple's vice president of Apple Music and Beats, Oliver Schusser, details the growth of and reaction to Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio on the streaming platform.

apple-music-spatial-audio-ad.jpeg

Apple Music gained Spatial Audio and Lossless support in June 2021, and since, Apple has continued to add new songs to its catalog that support both new features. Apple had previously promised that its entire catalog of 75 million songs would be made available in Lossless, and according to Schusser, the company has fulfilled its promise.

Schusser said that while the entire catalog of Apple Music songs supports the higher-quality format, the limitations of Bluetooth and the inability for headphones, such as AirPods, to play back the audio continues to be a challenge.
Apple Music subscribers can listen to Lossless using the built-in speakers on their iPhone, iPad, Mac, and HomePod. Still, though, Schusser admitted that Lossless remains a niche feature that most average listeners won't notice but that Apple still wanted to move ahead in bringing it to the masses.
Discussing Spatial Audio, which provides listeners with an immersive listening experience, Schusser says that compared to when the feature launched last summer, Apple Music's offering of Spatial Audio content has grown exceptionally. Schusser says that more than 50% of Apple Music subscribers are now listening in Spatial Audio.
While Apple continues to add new songs to its database that support Spatial Audio in partnerships with studios, the company is still focusing on ensuring the quality of the mixing on those songs.
Spatial Audio is not only allowing listeners to enjoy new music in a more immersive way, but it's also re-engaging fans with older songs, according to Rachel Newman, Apple Music's global head of editorial and content.
In a previous interview made in December, another Apple Music executive echoed similar remarks made by Schusser regarding the limitations of Bluetooth and Lossless audio.

Apple would like "more bandwidth" than what Bluetooth can provide, said Apple's vice president of acoustics, Gary Geaves. "I'll stop right there. We would like more bandwidth," Geaves added.

Apple is very possibly working on addressing the limitations of Bluetooth by creating a new wireless protocol, and the company's next-generation high-end AirPods Pro expected to launch this year could be the first AirPods to support playback of Lossless Audio.

Article Link: More Than Half of Apple Music Listeners Using Spatial Audio, Says Apple Exec
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Thanks for the reminder to turn it off.
 
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JCCL said:
Love lossless, but spatial audio just sounds weird. They sound like hacked fan-made mixes, have this turned off.
Click to expand...
Yep. Muddy, centre speaker focussed. Crisp left right separation out the window. Disabled.

I do like spatial audio for video though. Apple still needs to sort out audio sync for Apple TV (hardware) though.
 
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bbplayer5 said:
Lol what?
Click to expand...

More Than Half of Apple Music Listeners Using Spatial Audio, Says Apple Exec

I read this like...
Apple Exec knows exactly what you listen to, and how often you enable/disable Spacial Audio.

In other words, that's spying on customers, just like if i would look though your window and count how often you the spoon into your mouth while eating your soup.
Or how often you take a seat on your throne.
 
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Uh how do you write an article about Apple Music audio quality without mentioning the most important feature, Hi-Res Audio? Spatial Audio (Dolby Atmos) is nothing more than a post-processing remix gimmick and does nothing to improve on what the original producer created.
 
Wildkraut said:
More Than Half of Apple Music Listeners Using Spatial Audio, Says Apple Exec

I read this like...
Apple Exec knows exactly what you listen to, and how often you enable/disable Spacial Audio.

In other words, that's spying on customers, just like if i would look though your window and count how often you the spoon into your mouth while eating your soup.
Or how often you take a seat on your throne.
Click to expand...
That is like being shocked that the pizza place knows how many times you've ordered pizza with or without peperoni.
 
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I didn’t like it at all. But then I rarely listen to music with my AirPods. If I’m listening to music it’s with wired cans and a DAC.
 
The huge missing piece is the lack of lossless support for streaming source devices such as the Sonos Port, Bluesound Node, etc. If Apple could deliver lossless support to these devices (especially if the Apple Music interface worked through those services), there would be little reason to use any other service.
 
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