Apple Trumpets Spatial Audio as Dolby Atmos Playback Arrives

Apple touted Spatial Audio, with support for Dolby Atmos, at this week’s Worldwide Developers Conference (see 2106070060), but the branding could cause some customer confusion. The Music tab under Settings for iPhone users looking for the immersive audio feature lists Dolby Atmos, even as a blog post from Apple co-Head-Artist Relations Zane Lowe described Spatial Audio as the way of the future. Not only is it the next-generation sound, said Lowe, it's “very much how songs are going to feel.” Lowe compared the arrival of Spatial Audio to the evolution of stereo music's change from mono. Being able to place sounds in precise locations means “artists will start to hear things they haven’t heard before,” Lowe said, saying musicians, engineers and producers have a tool to create a “a new 3D experience” and to experiment with sounds. He imagined a future where artists “never even think about making a stereo record -- because all they’ve ever known is Spatial.” Apple is building immersive music-authoring tools directly into its Logic Pro software later this year so musicians can create and mix songs in Spatial Audio for Apple Music from “wherever.” Apple also rolled out lossless audio, at no additional cost, for 75 million songs. The company warns under the audio quality tab that “lossless files preserve every detail of the original audio. Turning this on will consume significantly more data.” IPhone users can also download tracks in Dolby Atmos. The company didn’t respond to questions Thursday.