Apple Lossless and Spatial Audio (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Apple Music teasing special announcement, as '3D lossless' audio streaming rumored - 9to5Mac

Apple Music has started teasing a special announcement coming soon, on the main Browse tab in the Music application. The...

9to5mac.com

There was one report I read earlier today that this service would cost no more than the current Apple Music subscription.

However, it is being referred to as an additional "tier" service so I highly doubt the price will remain where it is.

I suppose we'll see very shortly...

 

[Sam Posten]

Oh damn I just messaged you with this

 

[Sam Posten]

Closing this thread. Use Ron’s new one.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Re: pricing. As someone who has the top tier- Premier Apple One, I really hope that they are using Lossless as a temptation for more people to sign up for it. That would mean not having to pay extra. We will find out (very??) soon

My bad feeling: my huge lossless CD collection iTunes is on my 2009 MacPro, which is still running Mac OS X El Capitan -- all of which, both hardware and software have been deprecated. And I don't have enough disc space on any other device to move my entire collection to... And I'm not about to upgrade to an Intel Mac Pro -- my only hope is an Apple Silicon Mac Pro that still has the capability of large internal storage, which, to my pleasant surprise the current Intel Mac Pro does.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Re: pricing. As someone who has the top tier- Premier Apple One, I really hope that they are using Lossless as a temptation for more people to sign up for it. That would mean not having to pay extra. We will find out (very??) soon

My bad feeling: my huge lossless CD collection iTunes is on my 2009 MacPro, which is still running Mac OS X El Capitan -- all of which, both hardware and software have been deprecated. And I don't have enough disc space on any other device to move my entire collection to... And I'm not about to upgrade to an Intel Mac Pro -- my only hope is an Apple Silicon Mac Pro that still has the capability of large internal storage, which, to my pleasant surprise the current Intel Mac Pro does.

Ted,

I have Apple Music through my Verizon wireless subscription. Their top-tier plans include Apple Music, Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN.

That being said, I am kind of pessimistic that when Apple upgrades to Lossless that my Verizon plan would cover that.

I currently subscribe to Qobuz which costs me $150 per year, so if there was an incentive to drop that in favor of Apple Music, I would.


As for your iTunes collection. I have a huge collection that takes up about 180GB of data. I have it backed up on a 256GB SSD drive and I do store it on my Macbook Pro in order to easily update it.

It sounds like your collection takes up a lot more space than mine does. I would suspect that you'll get your storage wishes with the soon-to-be-announced Macbook Pros, but of course, those storage options will be expensive.

The biggest mistake I made with my current MBP purchase was going with 2TB of storage. I haven't nearly even surpassed 1TB even with my music stored on it.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Ted,
...
As for your iTunes collection. I have a huge collection that takes up about 180GB of data. I have it backed up on a 256GB SSD drive and I do store it on my Macbook Pro in order to easily update it.

It sounds like your collection takes up a lot more space than mine does. I would suspect that you'll get your storage wishes with the soon-to-be-announced Macbook Pros, but of course, those storage options will be expensive.

The biggest mistake I made with my current MBP purchase was going with 2TB of storage. I haven't nearly even surpassed 1TB even with my music stored on it.

My "mistake" was not waiting another xx months when I last upgraded my MacBook Pro (in 2018?), when the top SSD went from 4TB to 8TB. The reason I desperately need the larger storage isn't music (I don't keep my collection on the MBP) but photos, and no, 4TB is not enough for not having to use external SSDs... which, because they don't stay attached most of the time, as I often use my "laptop" as an actual laptop and that means they don't get backed up by Backblaze...

My AppleLossless music is 512+GB on my Mac Pro. but the full iTunes collection on the Mac Pro, including music video, podcasts, etc. is like 6TB. Yes, I could extract just the music, but it would be so much simpler to go for the whole thing

 

[Sam Posten]

@Ronald Epstein spatial music is included. Maybe lossless will be too




Okay, so what this mentions is spatial audio music.

The good news is that it's included with your current Apple subscription. That's a huge plus.

The bad news is that they didn't mention Hi-Rez music, that is, unless I missed something.

Thanks for this, Sam.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Update...

Seems like lossless is indeed included AT NO EXTRA COST. Wow. Holy Sheeet!

Apple Music adding lossless streaming to entire catalog at no extra cost, Spatial Audio support with Dolby Atmos - 9to5Mac

Apple Music officially announced that it is bringing lossless music quality options to its entire catalog at no extra cost,...

9to5mac.com

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Holy Shit did this turn out to be an incredibly interesting morning...

Amazon Music HD is now available to Unlimited subscribers at no extra cost - 9to5Mac

Amazon announced that its higher music plan, Amazon Music HD is now available to Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers at no extra cost.

9to5mac.com

 

[Ted Todorov]

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/05/apple-music-announces-spatial-audio-and-lossless-audio/

 

[dpippel]

Holy Shit did this turn out to be an incredibly interesting morning...

Amazon Music HD is now available to Unlimited subscribers at no extra cost - 9to5Mac

Amazon announced that its higher music plan, Amazon Music HD is now available to Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers at no extra cost.

9to5mac.com

Hellooooo, Tidal? Time to step up.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Hellooooo, Tidal? Time to step up.

Right. And not just Tidal but Qobuz.

I have Qobuz because, at the moment, it's the only lossless service that Sonos supports. However, they cost $150 per year compared to Apple at $99.

 

[dpippel]

Right. And not just Tidal but Qobuz.

I have Qobuz because, at the moment, it's the only lossless service that Sonos supports. However, they cost $150 per year compared to Apple at $99.

True. Tidal and Qobuz both have strengths that Apple Music and Amazon Music do not. Integration with music library/streaming service consolidation platforms like Audirvana and Roon is one, and there's Sonos on Qobuz. Tidal also has MQA and Qobuz has their HiRes format, for what they're worth. Still, with these two announcements today, it's going to be much more difficult for music lovers to justify continuing to pay these guys ~$20 per month when there are far less expensive alternatives available for lossless music streaming.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Wow. You can't even enjoy lossless with the new Airpods Max since lightning cable can only handle analog.

AirPods Max won't support Apple Music lossless over Lightning, HomePod also left out | AppleInsider

Apple's top-of-the-line AirPods Max won't support Apple Music lossless audio over wireless or wired connections, while the company's HomePod and HomePod mini won't support the new audio format at all.

appleinsider.com

 

[Ted Todorov]

I sincerely hope that the MacRumors story is wrong. I could care less about AirPods, but HomePods can’t handle Apple Lossless?!? ALAC has been around since, what, 2004! An iPod HiFi speaker (2006) can handle ALAC no problem, but the 2018 HomePod can’t???

 

[Clinton McClure]

Wow. You can't even enjoy lossless with the new Airpods Max since lightning cable can only handle analog.

AirPods Max won't support Apple Music lossless over Lightning, HomePod also left out | AppleInsider

Apple's top-of-the-line AirPods Max won't support Apple Music lossless audio over wireless or wired connections, while the company's HomePod and HomePod mini won't support the new audio format at all.

appleinsider.com

Lightning cables are a digital cable.

 

[dpippel]

Don't know what to say about the Lightning cable claim, but audio resolution on Bluetooth devices is going to be limited by the CODECs they support. It's not just an Apple thing. Bluetooth is a lossy communication protocol. If you're streaming Apple Music lossless to a Bluetooth device you're not going to get lossless audio on the receiver end. There's just no way around it.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Don't know what to say about the Lightning cable claim, but audio resolution on Bluetooth devices is going to be limited by the CODECs they support. It's not just an Apple thing. Bluetooth is a lossy communication protocol. If you're streaming Apple Music lossless to a Bluetooth device you're not going to get lossless audio on the receiver end. There's just no way around it.

I am mystified by the obsession with Bluetooth. The HomePod is WiFi, Bluetooth has nothing to do with it. Nor does Bluetooth have anything to do with wires, like Lightning

 

[dpippel]

I am mystified by the obsession with Bluetooth. The HomePod is WiFi, Bluetooth has nothing to do with it. Nor does Bluetooth have anything to do with wires, like Lightning

I was obviously referring to wireless headphones/earphones, like the AirPods Pro, and I specifically mentioned that I was mystified about the Lightning cable issue. Also obviously, WIRED devices don't use Bluetooth on a wired connection. I've seen so many articles since the announcement bemoaning the fact that the AirPods Pro won't support Apple Music lossless streaming. Well, DUH.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Wow. You can't even enjoy lossless with the new Airpods Max since lightning cable can only handle analog.

AirPods Max won't support Apple Music lossless over Lightning, HomePod also left out | AppleInsider

Apple's top-of-the-line AirPods Max won't support Apple Music lossless audio over wireless or wired connections, while the company's HomePod and HomePod mini won't support the new audio format at all.

appleinsider.com

Ron,

Why would you worry about this (besides the fact Lightning cables are digital)?

As Doug alluded, nobody should be spending $$$ on Airpods-whatevers if they actually cared about lossless audio all that much -- BT doesn't/can't do lossless audio, and obviously, Airpods-whatevers aren't designed to be tethered via the Lightning cable even if a few people might (very) occasionally(?) use them that way.

_Man_