Apple Music wants more Dolby Atmos tracks and isn’t afraid to pay for it
Apple really really really wants artists and record labels to release more music in spatial audio, so it’s offering incentives
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What do REM, Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo and Michael Bublé have in common? They’ve all released music in spatial audio formats like Dolby Atmos onApple Music– and next year, they’re going to be joined by a lot more artists. In an effort to make more acts release spatial audio music,Appleis offering significant incentives to encourage them.
Spatial audio is one of Apple Music’s key features, delivering three-dimensional sound to your AirPods or HomePods. When it’s done well it adds extra realism to the track. As the cliché goes, it makes you feel that you’re right there on stage or in the studio with the artist, especially if you’re using headphones or earbuds with head tracking. When it’s done well it’s really lovely. I’m listening to Troye Sivan’sOne Of Your GirlsinDolby Atmosright now and it makes the already intimate track feel even more immediate.
It’s also pretty great with live recordings and can give a whole new lease of life to records you’ve heard a million times. Check out the remaster of Fleetwood Mac’sRumoursfor an excellent example – theSpatial Audioenables you to hear individual vocals and instrument tracks with a clarity and immediacy that made me laugh out loud.
What is Apple doing to promote spatial audio?
According toBloomberg, Apple is going to give higher weighting to spatial audio tracks, which means they’ll appear more prominently in search results and browsing, and it’ll pay higher royalties too. Interestingly, Apple will pay more whether people listen to the tracks or not. The encouragement is based on making tracks available in the format, not how many people listen to them.
The goal here is two-fold: to promote Apple Music and to sell Apple’s music hardware, like thebest AirPodsandbest MacBooks. Spatial audio is an area, alongsidelossless audio, where Apple Music has an edge overSpotify’sstandard subscription plan, and it’s a feature built into Apple’s most recent headphones, earbuds and speakers.
The full list of spatial audio compatible Apple products is impressively long, and includes:
As ever, Apple hasn’t commented on the report but it’s clear that you can expect to hear much more spatial audio in 2024.
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Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir,Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now and her next book, about pop music, is out in 2025. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock bandUnquiet Mind.
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