Apple Music: Features, Devices, Pricing, Lossless, and more
Apple Music OVERVIEW - UPDATED OCTOBER 7, 2021
Apple Music
72 Million Subscribers
Apple Music is the company’s music streaming subscription-based service that was released on June 30 of 2015 in 100 countries. Apple Music has over 75 million songs in its catalog and offers the ability to download your favorite tracks and play them offline.
With the possibility of listening across all your favorite devices, Apple Music offers new music personalized for every user, curated playlists from Apple’s editors, exclusive Radio, video clips, and original content. Recently, the company introduced a HiFi quality for the service up to 24 bits at 192 kHz.
Everything about Apple Music
How and where can I listen to Apple Music?
Apple Music is available on a variety of devices: iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, Mac, HomePod, CarPlay, PC, Android, Sonos, Amazon Echo, Samsung Smart TV, Google Nest, and the web.
To be more specific, the service needs at least iOS 10 and watchOS 2.2 to run on your Apple devices. Here are the devices available:
iPhone 5, 5C, SE (1st generation) or newer;
iPod touch (6th generation) or newer;
iPad (4th generation), iPad mini 2, iPad Air (1st generation), iPad Pro (1st generation) or newer;
Apple Watch (all)
Apple TV (4th generation) or newer;
Samsung Smart TVs from 2018 or newer.
It’s also possible to listen to it on your browser, just type music.apple.com. A subscription is required.
Apple Music HiFi: Lossless, Hi-Res Lossless, Dolby Atmos with Spatial Audio
In May of 2021, Apple announced it was bringing lossless music quality options to its entire catalog at no extra cost, starting in June. Apple says lossless quality will be available for more than 75 million tracks in the Apple Music library by the end of 2021.
It’s also launching support for Spatial Audio music with songs authored in Dolby Atmos. Users are able to listen to select albums with an immersive 3D sound-space on AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max and Beats headphones with an H1 or W1 chip. Apple says thousands of Dolby Atmos are already available.
What headphones are compatible with Apple Music Lossless and Dolby Atmos support with Spatial Audio?
Apple says Dolby Atmos is supported by iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV using any pair of headphones. This includes AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, BeatsX, Beats Solo3 Wireless, Beats Studio3, Powerbeats3 Wireless, Beats Flex, Powerbeats Pro, and Beats Solo Pro, but there are a few differences.
For example, no Bluetooth headphones will offer Lossless quality. Apple says that AirPods Max with a wired connection can offer a similar sound to Lossless, but to stream Hi-Res Lossless quality at 24 bit at 192 kHz it will require another headphone with external DAC.
One of the features available with iOS 15 for AirPods Pro and AirPods Max is “Spatialize Stereo,” which uses head-tracking for an immersive sound experience.
How to activate Dolby Atmos and Lossless
With iOS 14.6 or newer, follow these steps:
Go to Settings, then Music
Click on Audio and set Dolby Atmos to Always On
To listen to between Lossless and Hi-Res Lossless:
Go to Settings, then Music
Click on Audio Quality and choose between Lossless and Hi-Res Lossless for cellular or Wi-Fi connections
What is Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio?
