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 on Apple Music – and many more artists will join them next year. In an effort to get more acts to release spatial audio music, Apple is offering significant incentives to encourage it.
Spatial audio is one of the most important features of Apple Music, delivering three-dimensional sound to your AirPods or HomePods. When done right, it adds extra realism to the track. As the cliché goes, you'll feel like you're on stage or in the studio with the artist, especially if you use head-tracking headphones or earbuds. When it's done right, it's really beautiful. I listen to Troye Sivan's One of your girls in Dolby Atmos and it makes the already intimate song feel even more direct.
It's also pretty great with live recordings and can give whole new life to records you've heard a million times. Check out Fleetwood Mac's remaster Rumors An excellent example: Spatial Audio allows you to hear individual vocal and instrument tracks with a clarity and immediacy that made me laugh out loud.
According to Bloomberg, Apple will give more weight to spatial audio tracks, meaning they will appear more prominently in search results and during browsing, and it will also pay higher royalties. Interestingly, Apple will pay more regardless of whether people listen to the songs or not. The incentive is based on making songs available in the format, not on the number of people who listen to them.
The goal here is twofold: promote Apple Music and sell Apple's music hardware, like the best AirPods and the best MacBooks. Spatial audio, in addition to lossless audio, is an area where Apple Music has an edge over Spotify's standard 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:
- AirPods Pro (1st or 2nd generation), AirPods Max, AirPods (3rd generation), Beats Fit Pro or Beats Studio Pro
- iPhone 7 or later
- iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) and higher
- iPad Pro 11‑inch
- iPad Air (3rd generation) and later
- iPad (6th generation) and higher
- iPad mini (5th generation) and later
- Macs with Apple Silicon
- Apple TV 4K with tvOS 15 or higher
As always, Apple didn't comment on the report, but it's clear that you can expect a lot more spatial audio in 2024.