Apple lossless official announcement

[Jimbob54]

I read their careful wording as there are at least 2 tiers.

They reference "for the audiophiles" which to me says $$$

 

[Sancus]

Don't care about lossless, but it's cool they're jumping on the Atmos bandwagon. My only disappointment is it sounds like the initial release will not have any provision for playing the Atmos music on a real system like via Apple TV connected to an AVR. Tidal allows that. So I hope they do add it.

Regardless, a big investment in surround music of any type is great for me!

 

[paulraphael]

Tbh clipping is a huge issue in lossy formats, any sounds that 'gently' clips the track (like clapping or drums) can be completely botched on lossy formats.

Likewise i used to think 320kbps was good enough, then i accidently noticed the difference and now i can never unhear it.

The more relevant question here is can you tell the difference between lossless and 256kb/s AAC ... which is supposed to be more transparent than 320 MP3.

Personally I haven't bee able to hear the difference (have only compared informally). But I like lossless on general principle.

Would be especially nice if you could select lossless over wifi and compressed over a cell connection ...

 

[Dogen]

Would be especially nice if you could select lossless over wifi and compressed over a cell connection ...

That appears to be what Apple is supporting. You can choose different data rates for cell data vs other means. That’s the way I read it, anyway.

 

[GeorgeBynum]

I would dare advance that less than 5% Apple Music subscribers care one bit about lossless.

I would say that your 5% is probably high. BUT, I would say that 99% would SAY they care. Marketing 101; convince the customer they NEED what you have. Apple is pretty good at that.

 

[Berwhale]

The only footnote about high-res in the press release is that it requires additional equipment (outboard DAC etc). Anything is possible, but it seems like high res is also included, just not supported with Apple-only stock hardware.

FWIW - Amazon don't seem to make a distinction between lossless and hi-res, they are both covered under the 'Amazon Music HD' banner which is now included with Amazon Music Unlimited.

So, in the UK, Spotify bumped the monthly charge for Premium Family (Lossy) to £16.99 this month. Now I can get Amazon Music Unlimited Family (including lossless and Hi-Res) for £14.99 per month. Hmmm. Spotify are going to lose a loyal customer if they don't get their act together soon.

 

[Red@]

I would say that your 5% is probably high. BUT, I would say that 99% would SAY they care. Marketing 101; convince the customer they NEED what you have. Apple is pretty good at that.

I don't get the debate really.
It is simple :
1- lossy compression looses information, however small.
2- apple adds (not replace) lossless in the same subscription, no added cost.
In what world this is bad manipulation ?

We are not in a tidal scenario whare the service costs twice as the base subscription. Apple uses services like apple music to sell hardware; they will probably use the surround stuff to replace their existing headphones and speakers offering an sell them in more important numbers.
In our case this is unrelated as we have are hifi gear.
So all good folks !

 

[dmac6419]

Apple took one shot across the bow and took out two major streaming services Spotify and tidal.

This applies to all music streaming services not just two

 

[muslhead]

This applies to all music streaming services not just two

not sure i agree. There are many who dont want to be a part of the Apple ecosphere. They still need a home for their music streaming

 

[dmac6419]

Was just reading from a Tidal customer on another site that Tidal has also dropped to $9.99/mo. No idea if it's true...

You have source of said other site,by the way Twitter (Tidal) has real cash in the bank unlike Spotify who has to raise cash thru investors eg the three major music labels and other investors.

 

[dmac6419]

not sure i agree. There are many who dont want to be a part of the Apple ecosphere. They still need a home for their music streaming

They'll drop prices if they want to survive,I ain't that loyal,also you don't have to be in the apple ecosystem to stream.

 

[GeorgeBynum]

2- apple adds (not replace) lossless in the same subscription, no added cost.
In what world this is bad manipulation?

I am not suggesting anything bad. Offering better and no price increase is good. Offering better than what your competition offers at a lower price is what competition is all about.

What's been hinted is that the new AppleTV4k might support this. With modern (albeit containing problems of their own) AVRs decoding from HDMI, full bandwidth of lossless high-end sound via downloading should be possible; streaming still exceeds technology.

To me (not an Apple fanboi, but the rest of my family uses iPhones, so I need to) this is the first that Apple has done at a lower cost than others. I wish them luck!

 

[chelgrian]

So, in the UK, Spotify bumped the monthly charge for Premium Family (Lossy) to £16.99 this month. Now I can get Amazon Music Unlimited Family (including lossless and Hi-Res) for £14.99 per month. Hmmm. Spotify are going to lose a loyal customer if they don't get their act together soon.

The thing is that Apple have no equivalent of Spotify connect and using anything with an HDMI output such as an Apple TV or a Mac as a streamer has significant downsides in user friendliness.

I think many people or indeed most Spotify subscribers will continue to use a technically worse Spotify even at a higher price due to the ease of use and installed base of Spotify connect enabled devices.

 

[_thelaughingman]

not sure i agree. There are many who dont want to be a part of the Apple ecosphere. They still need a home for their music streaming

Interestingly Apple Music is available on android and lossless beta has already started on android before iOS

 

[GGroch]

Just received from Amazon Music:

We have some great news for you – going forward, there will be no extra charge for HD as part of your Amazon Music Unlimited subscription.
You will continue to have full access to all of your HD content, but at no additional cost. This change will be reflected in your next billing cycle.

 

[norcalscott]

Interestingly Apple Music is available on android and lossless beta has already started on android before iOS

As I am not in the Apple ecosystem (other than my iPad which I don't use for music) - does anyone know if there is a way to get bit-perfect casting or DAC playout with Apple Music on Android? Neither USB Audio Player Pro nor BubbleUPNP support Apple Music as far as I can tell. This would definitely be a deal breaker for me.

 

[abdo123]

Interestingly Apple Music is available on android and lossless beta has already started on android before iOS

Oh come on...

 

[Red@]

As I am not in the Apple ecosystem (other than my iPad which I don't use for music) - does anyone know if there is a way to get bit-perfect casting or DAC playout with Apple Music on Android? Neither USB Audio Player Pro nor BubbleUPNP support Apple Music as far as I can tell. This would definitely be a deal breaker for me.

I guess we need to wait to examine.
But I would conjucture that with spotify hifi, amazin hd, deezer hifi, qobuz and now apple music, Google will have to revisit audio transport over usb in their next version of android.
Android 12 which will be presented this month maybe ?

 

[Vladimir Filevski]

Do you expect to hear a difference?
Have you subjected yourself to a test , somewhere here on here, to verify that you can reliably distinguish 320 mb/s mp3 from lossless?...

I am not saying that there aren't conditions under which you could detect the differences. True. I need however to ask you under what Protocol you conducted those tests. if it was not blind, it's not valid.

If you are implying that it is not possible to reliably distinguish 320 kb/s MP3 from lossless, then it is... how can I put it... not serious.
But if you are kindly cautioning listeners to examine their abilities with blind ABX test before claiming superiority of their listening abilities, then you are absolutely right.

 

[sweetchaos]

Being an Apple fanboy paid off…

Also, an interesting tidbit:

Apple confirmed to publication T3 AirPods Pro and AirPods Max will not support Lossless Audio, as these products use the Bluetooth AAC codec when connected to an iPhone, instead of ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec).

I hope the next AirPods Pro revision will support lossless.