Unlocking the Atmos output in Apple Music?

[serr]

Can anyone confirm that subscribing to a paid Apple Music account unlocks Atmos output?

This guide here: https://www.production-expert.com/p...listen-to-dolby-atmos-without-costly-hardware
This part: "Open the Music app and then open up the app’s preferences. In the Playback tab, Set Dolby Atmos to "Automatic" or "Always On". As you can see, mine is set to “Automatic”."

I don't have a paid Apple Music account so the Dolby Atmos dropdown is omitted. ie. blank, no control there at all

I have Monterey installed with Loopback installed and configured with a 16 channel passthrough device as instructed. Noted needing it to be precisely 16 channels and everything! I've used Loopback for a while too and am familiar with it. I normally use it as the selected system output device and do speaker management with a DAW. (For 5.1 and stereo in the past.) So this setup continues in expanded form! I have the 7.1.4 speaker management dialed in now too. (Small top speaker managed system here.) Finally have all 12 channels of speakers set up and dialed in to get serious with 7.1.4 dodecaphonic (aka Atmos) sound! Hanging the 4 height channels took some effort and I was accurate! Getting started mixing actually and this is kind of fun, I have to say! But I kind of need to listen to encoded commercial released mixes too so...

Now to navigate Apple's greed with the software unlock. Can anyone just confirm that the controls show up with a paid account? The tutorial I linked (and there are a few others) doesn't mention this part... so I wonder if something else might be at play? I do plan on buying the dolby media encoder at some point down the road but first things first. Or I might just release 'duty free' Atmos in standard wavpac. Because I don't like Dolby's greed with all this! But first... decoding their encoded format.

This is Monterey 12.2 (or I'd have to upgrade my Loopback) but this is actually the version shown in the tutorial and should be good to go. The Loopback 16 channel passthrough device is selected as system output device and 'Configure Speakers' is set to 7.1.4 Atmos. On a bangin' Mac Pro 5,1 at present! MOTU 828mk3 audio interface with channels 1-8 ADAT/SMUX out to an Apogee Rosetta and then the last 4 channels MOTU analog outputs. But the system output will only see the Loopback 16 channel passthrough device. The system works very well for 5.1. The only new bit to me is needing to unlock the Atmos controls in the Music player and who do I have to pay and how much?

Thanks!

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

About Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos in Apple Music - Apple Support

If you subscribe to Apple Music, you can listen to select songs in Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos. Learn which devices support Dolby Atmos, how to change settings for Dolby Atmos, and find answers to common questions so you can start listening.

support.apple.com

Additionally, you’ll need compatible headphones/equipment so don’t know if your setup will actually work.

 

[serr]

About Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos in Apple Music - Apple Support

If you subscribe to Apple Music, you can listen to select songs in Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos. Learn which devices support Dolby Atmos, how to change settings for Dolby Atmos, and find answers to common questions so you can start listening.

support.apple.com

Additionally, you’ll need compatible headphones/equipment so don’t know if your setup will actually work.

Thanks for the reply! Headphones would not be "compatible" for Atmos IMHO . (You're listening to immersive STEREO with that folks! . But I digress.) I have a 7.1.4 reference system set up with everything to spec. Fully compatible equipment and a small project recording/mixing studio actually. See above.

I guess I could subscribe and find out...
See what I mean with that Apple page though? No direct answer. I'm not actually very interested in streaming lossy Atmos and I don't really want to pay for a Music subscription I will almost never use. I'm interested in lossless surround sound (sorry... "immersive audio") and music only.

So I'm not trying to unlock this for Atmos streaming. I need to unlock this for all Atmos use with my own files. (ie. lossless Atmos encoded 7.1.4 files per their spec.) The language is ambiguous with that. And I'm not entirely sure this is made to be possible. Some of this ambiguous language suggests Apple Music player can ONLY be used for lossy streaming Atmos and not lossless purchased Atmos files. THAT's what I'm fishing for an answer for! I'm seeing a few tutorials that suggest this can be unlocked for general use with your own files. So here I am.

I'd like to get this unlocked to listen to commercial Atmos releases for free as it were if possible and push off buying the $400 Dolby media encoder that includes their reference player for a bit. Obviously that would work. Again, the aim here is to software decode. I'm not doing pass through to an AV receiver.

 

[serr]

I've seen a few claims that Apple Music will only do lossy Atmos and not even play lossless when unlocked.

Can anyone confirm or refute this?
Can anyone conform that the Atmos controls unlock with an Apple Music account subscription?

I've also seen language like "compatible Mac" even though this is tied to the MacOS version. So of course I'm wondering if the lockout is tied to the subscription or if there might be an infamous Apple blacklist situation also going on here. It's a compatible Mac in that is runs a compatible MacOS (eg Monterey) but it is a Mac Pro 5,1 which is a few years old now.

Someone must have stumbled through this by now! Did the Atmos control in Music preferences appear after purchasing a subscription? Does anyone WITHOUT a subscription have the control visible?

 

[serr]

?

Haha, what's up with this?
Ask this:
Did the Atmos control in Music preferences appear after purchasing a subscription? Does anyone WITHOUT a subscription have the control visible?

1st response is to quote the brochure with no direct answer like a hostage reading a prepared statement.
Then crickets!

Can anyone spill the beans?

 

[serr]

I know this is tied to an approved device list hidden away somewhere. Does anyone have the slightest idea how to look for something like this? Remember the Dosdude patches that added older compatible machines to the approved device list for the MacOS installer? How do we find this for the Music app? What files to start sifting through?

I have a full reference system for lossless Atmos using the Dolby reference player. The Music app would be convenient to unlock streaming Atmos (lossy and 2nd class as it may be at present). I'm just not interested in buying a newer device I don't need for anything else to connect. I'm certainly not going to try to duplicate my reference system with some consumer AV receiver which would still be an extremely expensive downgrade. For anyone wondering why not just give up and buy some device with the decoder built in.

So... Some xml file? Who knows how to look for this stuff and do this? @dosdude1? You out there? Where does someone who knows just enough to be dangerous start looking for this?

Software decoding of lossy Atmos (only) is included in MacOS. It is made available to the Music app to decode streaming Atmos and output multichannel audio to any capable (ie enough channels) connected devices. The Atmos controls in the Music app preferences are blanked out if you don't have a device on the internal list connected. eg. An AppleTV. However, some of the newer models of Mac computers are classified as approved Atmos devices (even though they lack an output system beyond the stereo binaural folddown - it's more about access). This can lead to adding older model Macs to this list to unlock the controls. We're not looking for a hardware decoding device here, we're looking to unlock use of the already included MacOS software.