Apple lossless official announcement

[paulraphael]

I didn't see mention about tracks available for purchase. There's some indy music available from Apple that you can't get anywhere else, and in those cases I've just bought it from them. I wonder if they'll upgrade previously purchased tracks.

 

[bcurtin]

Also wonder if they'll allow for the Apple TV to be a high res music streamer - believe it's currently limited to 24 bit/48 KHz and not sure if that's a hardware or software limitation.

 

[Katji]

Key part/s of the text...

Switch on in app Settings. Not with credit card whatever, and not waiting and hoping for release in your particular country.

 

[Matias]

Interesting how their Lossless Audio goes up to 24/48, higher than the regular CD format 16/44.

 

[blueone]

Not only lossless, but hi-rez.

"For the true audiophile, Apple Music also offers Hi-Resolution Lossless all the way up to 24 bit at 192 kHz"

Makes me wonder if AirPlay will finally move beyond limiting support to 16/44.1…

 

[Jimbob54]

Makes me wonder if AirPlay will finally move beyond limiting support to 16/44.1…

Is airplay 2 similarly restricted? Been a while since I did Apple.

 

[Sukie]

Added into this, Amazon are stopping HD additional charge.

 

[_thelaughingman]

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

 

[Dogen]

Very glad to see this! Although I’m not sure I could tell the difference... The Atmos is very cool; wonder if legacy stereo and surround titles could be converted to Atmos? The big impact is the streaming market. I don’t see how Tidal carries on now, and Spotify and Amazon have their work cut out for them.

 

[sabbot]

in this case your phone (iPad, Apple TV .etc) will decode Atmos to whichever channel setup you have.

you don't need an 'Atmos Setup'.

Even better if labels would continue to provide both, specifically produced stereo and Atmos mixes, rather than relying on player-side downmixing. Or does the Atmos stream anyways allow to embed a conventional stereo mix additionally?

 

[abdo123]

Even better if labels would continue to provide both, specifically produced stereo and Atmos mixes, rather than relying on player-side downmixing. Or does the Atmos stream anyways allow to embed a conventional stereo mix additionally?

practically every Atmos track is downmixed, regardless of how many channels you have. (well unless you have 32 channels)

when you mix using Atmos you don't mix for channels but rather objects (32 objects in this case) that are 'represented' through your setup's channels.

an Atmos track can be decoded to any number of channels, thus all Atmos tracks are mono, stereo and multichannel at the same time. and it sounds quite good on stereo imo.

 

[chelgrian]

Even better if labels would continue to provide both, specifically produced stereo and Atmos mixes, rather than relying on player-side downmixing. Or does the Atmos stream anyways allow to embed a conventional stereo mix additionally?

Apple's annoucement is confusing. They have announced lossless via ALAC, however they have also announced Atmos which is going to be lossy Dolby Digital Plus encoded partially as TrueHD Atmos is only used for UHD Bluray and partially because the bitrate for TrueHD Atmos for streaming would be too high.

There isn't a good answer in the press release as to if you can ignore Atmos completely and just select ALAC encoded lossless stereo streaming.

 

[abdo123]

Interesting how their Lossless Audio goes up to 24/48, higher than the regular CD format 16/44.

I think they're offering up to 192/24 as long as the publisher provides it.

 

[FrantzM]

I am not sure that lossless will make people drop Spotify. Their interface and predictions are good and the envy of the Music Streaming Industry.

I am somewhat surprised by my stance toward lossless: I no longer care about it.
There! I just lost all of my previously diminished, audiophiles creds

And ... I am not alone. I would dare advance that less than 5% Apple Music subscribers care one bit about lossless.

 

[chelgrian]

Also wonder if they'll allow for the Apple TV to be a high res music streamer - believe it's currently limited to 24 bit/48 KHz and not sure if that's a hardware or software limitation.

The problem with using an AppleTV as a streamer is that it outputs over HDMI. The issue is that HDCP must be on the entire chain from source (Apple TV in this case) to sink (probably a TV) so if you are merrily listening to some music with with an Apple TV plugged in to the AVR and perhaps being controlled by an iPhone then your turn the TV on then HDCP will renegotiate and you'll get an audio dropout which could last seconds while it does so.

 

[lshivamber]

This is great progress. Will have to seriously consider what to do about my Qobuz plan

 

[Matias]

I think they're offering up to 192/24 as long as the publisher provides it.

I mean 24/192 is their Hi Res tier, but the regular Lossless tier already goes higher than redbook 16/44.

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

Amazon Music Drops HD Tier to $9.99, Shaking Up Hi-Fi Streaming Market

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/9573513/amazon-music-hd-unlimited-hi-fi-price-streaming

 

[_thelaughingman]

Amazon Music Drops HD Tier to $9.99, Shaking Up Hi-Fi Streaming Market

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/9573513/amazon-music-hd-unlimited-hi-fi-price-streaming

All competitors are bout to drop prices to their hi fi tier except tidal, which will hold on to its MQA shill.

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

All competitors are bout to drop prices to their hi fi tier except tidal, which will hold on to its MQA shill.

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...