Subscribers get higher– quality music — but can they play it?

Subscribers get higher quality music — but can they actually do anything with it?

APPLE MUSIC SUBSCRIBERS will be able to enjoy two major upgrades to music quality, at no extra cost, from June — provided their hardware is up to it.

First, tracks will be available in Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, an immersive audio format that enables musicians to mix music so it sounds like the instruments are all around you when you listen on a Dolby Atmos capable device.

All Apple Music subscribers using the latest version of Apple Music on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV can listen to thousands of Dolby Atmos tracks using any headphones. On Apple or Beats headphones with an H1 or W1 chip, Dolby Atmos music plays automatically when available for a track. You can also hear Dolby Atmos music using the built–in speakers on a compatible iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, or HomePod, or by connecting your Apple TV 4K to a compatible TV or AV receiver.

New Dolby Atmos tracks will be added constantly, with special playlists and a badge on the detail page of albums available in Dolby Atmos to help you find them.

The other upgrade is for serious audiophiles: the entire Apple Music catalog of more than 75m tracks will be made available in Lossless Audio, starting with 20m tracks at launch, with the rest to follow by year end.

You’ll have a choice of resolutions to download or stream over different speeds of connection, from Lossless (CD quality, 16–bit at 44.1kHz, suitable for cellular connections), to 24–bit at 48kHz, which is playable natively on Apple devices, up to Hi– Resolution Lossless (24–bit at 192kHz, for Wi–Fi connections only).

The catch, as Apple notes in the fine print, is that Hi–Res Lossless “requires external equipment, such as a USB digital–to–analog converter (DAC)” — and Apple’s own premium HomePod, HomePod mini, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max do not make the grade. These devices use the Bluetooth AAC codec, which does not have enough bandwidth for the huge new top–quality files, encoded using Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC). AirPods Max will not support the top format even over a Lightning cable, because its built–in DAC cannot handle more than 24–bit at 96kHz.

Apple thinks Dolby Atmos is more significant for more users, and in a typical home or office setting, or while working out, you probably couldn’t perceive any benefit from Hi-Res Lossless anyway. But it looks a little lame that it lacks support in Apple’s own premium products.

APPLE MUSIC CATALOG WILL BE AVAILABLE IN LOSSLESS AUDIO