Starting in June, Apple Music will support spatial audio, also known as lossless audio.
This industry-leading audio format will be available to Apple Music subscribers at no extra cost. At launch only mere thousands of songs will be available in lossless format, however, as it will take time for Apple to convert their catalog of 75 million tracks to FLAC format.
For those who have never heard of lossless audio until this week, lossless audio is an audio file in its purest form, the way the band recorded the song in the studio, or the way your favorite producer created it in a digital audio workspace. Listening to lossless audio is essentially listening to the master file of a song. Pretty sweet, right?
Rather than an MP3 or .WAV file, lossless audio is saved in FLAC format. Apple Music will support lossless audio files up to 24 bits.
In addition, Apple Music will offer support for Dolby Atmos, “an immersive audio experience that enables artists to mix music so the sound comes from all around and from above.”
To start listening to Lossless Audio, subscribers using the latest version of Apple Music can turn it on in Settings > Music > Audio Quality.
The introduction of lossless audio does have some limitations. iTunes music cannot be purchased in lossless format. Already-purchased iTunes tracks cannot be upgraded to lossless audio quality, either. But the move is a step toward a new soundscape in streaming and hopefully, other leading streaming services will follow suit.
We can’t wait to get our immersive listening on — let us know in the comments what song you are most excited to listen to in lossless format!
Source: Apple
