Apple's Eddy Cue says Spatial Audio is a 'game-changer' for music
Apple services chief Eddy Cue says that Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos could be the "game-changer" that the music industry has been waiting for, while lossless audio will be a much more niche feature.
Credit: Apple
Apple on Monday launched Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio content, bringing immersive 3D streaming and higher-quality audio to Apple Music. A day after the launch, Cue spoke with Billboard to discuss the release of the new Apple Music features.
On lossless audio quality, Cue admits that only a "small set of customers" would actually be able to tell the difference between a normal track and a lossless one. He says some customers who have "incredibly ears" and "very, very high-quality stereo equipment" could tell the difference. For most people, "our ears aren't that good," he said.
"It's a small set of customers, but they want it and we'll certainly give it to them, and they'll have it as part of this. The good news is they'll have lossless and they'll have Dolby Atmos and Spatial," Cue said.
Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos, on the other hand, could be a true "game-changer," the Apple services chief added. Cue likened the quality to HD television -- pretty much any person can immediately tell a difference.
"And so, when we listened to it for the first time, we realized this is a big, big deal. It makes you feel like you're onstage, standing right next to the singer, it makes you feel like you might be to the left of the drummer, to the right of the guitarist. It creates this experience that, almost in some ways, you've never really had, unless you're lucky enough to be really close to somebody playing music," Cue said.
Cue said that Apple spent time talking to labels and artists and educating them on Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos. This step was necessary because converting a song to Spatial Audio requires an in-depth process. It's not a "take-the-file that you have in stereo, processes through this software application and out comes Dolby Atmos," he said.
Because of the additional steps necessary, Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos is launching with a limited set of artists initially. Apple Music offers more than 75 million songs. As of writing, Spatial Audio is only available on "thousands."
Cue does believe that this is just the beginning. He says that, eventually, "every new song that comes out" will support Dolby Atmos.
On the subject of support in CarPlay or third-party speakers, Cue says that he believes Spatial Audio "will go everywhere." Although support within a vehicle is not simple, he believes there's no doubt the platform will become available more broadly in the future.
When asked about the fact that Apple's AirPods Max didn't support lossless, Cue acknowledged that it's a problem, but only a minor one.
"So, yeah, I think there's a small problem with that, but it's a niche problem because, again, most people never have even heard of lossless to begin with and it's only when you tell them [they acknowledge it]. When they hear Spatial Audio and they get to listen to it, I think it's game over," Cue said.
Follow all of WWDC 2021 with comprehensive AppleInsider coverage of the week-long event from June 7 through June 11, including details on iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, macOS Monterey and more.
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Credit: Apple
Apple on Monday launched Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio content, bringing immersive 3D streaming and higher-quality audio to Apple Music. A day after the launch, Cue spoke with Billboard to discuss the release of the new Apple Music features.
On lossless audio quality, Cue admits that only a "small set of customers" would actually be able to tell the difference between a normal track and a lossless one. He says some customers who have "incredibly ears" and "very, very high-quality stereo equipment" could tell the difference. For most people, "our ears aren't that good," he said.
"It's a small set of customers, but they want it and we'll certainly give it to them, and they'll have it as part of this. The good news is they'll have lossless and they'll have Dolby Atmos and Spatial," Cue said.
Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos, on the other hand, could be a true "game-changer," the Apple services chief added. Cue likened the quality to HD television -- pretty much any person can immediately tell a difference.
"And so, when we listened to it for the first time, we realized this is a big, big deal. It makes you feel like you're onstage, standing right next to the singer, it makes you feel like you might be to the left of the drummer, to the right of the guitarist. It creates this experience that, almost in some ways, you've never really had, unless you're lucky enough to be really close to somebody playing music," Cue said.
Cue said that Apple spent time talking to labels and artists and educating them on Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos. This step was necessary because converting a song to Spatial Audio requires an in-depth process. It's not a "take-the-file that you have in stereo, processes through this software application and out comes Dolby Atmos," he said.
Because of the additional steps necessary, Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos is launching with a limited set of artists initially. Apple Music offers more than 75 million songs. As of writing, Spatial Audio is only available on "thousands."
Cue does believe that this is just the beginning. He says that, eventually, "every new song that comes out" will support Dolby Atmos.
On the subject of support in CarPlay or third-party speakers, Cue says that he believes Spatial Audio "will go everywhere." Although support within a vehicle is not simple, he believes there's no doubt the platform will become available more broadly in the future.
When asked about the fact that Apple's AirPods Max didn't support lossless, Cue acknowledged that it's a problem, but only a minor one.
"So, yeah, I think there's a small problem with that, but it's a niche problem because, again, most people never have even heard of lossless to begin with and it's only when you tell them [they acknowledge it]. When they hear Spatial Audio and they get to listen to it, I think it's game over," Cue said.
Follow all of WWDC 2021 with comprehensive AppleInsider coverage of the week-long event from June 7 through June 11, including details on iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, macOS Monterey and more.
Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod. Say, "Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider," and you'll get the latest AppleInsider Podcast. Or ask your HomePod mini for "AppleInsider Daily" instead and you'll hear a fast update direct from our news team. And, if you're interested in Apple-centric home automation, say "Hey, Siri, play HomeKit Insider," and you'll be listening to our newest specialized podcast in moments.
Comments
Anyone who’s ever heard of these silver discs calls “CD”s has heard of lossless.
Only Napster, music piracy in conjunction with slow internet, metered cellular data and expensive flash memory brought us the “blessings” of lossy audio compression algorithms.
So, no, lossless isn’t “niche”, it was and should always be the normal case, lossy compression should be the exception.
in fact you would be hard pressed to determine the difference between 16/44.1 and 24/96k - try a blind test if you think you can.
As for what Eddy Cue said, yes Spatial Audio will probably make a bigger difference to most listeners than lossless. Most people get their music from their phones now and since lossless Bluetooth isn't a thing, Spatial Audio/Dolby Atmos makes more sense because it can be implemented with what most listeners already have.
That being said, I'm in the minority of users who does have the ability to easily show the difference between lossy AAC and lossless and especially HiRes audio. I have a dedicated 2 channel listening room, a smaller 5.1 home theater listening room and a larger 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos home theater. I spent some of today listening to the Atmos tracks in the Atmos theater and it sounded nice....not unlike the similar content on Tidal (which I also subscribe to mainly since I use the Roon player). I've been waiting for Apple to go lossless for a LONG time, and we got the added bonus of HiRes lossless which I wasn't expecting.
The problem for me now is that Roon has made it really easy to pipe my lossless and HiRes music to wherever I am in the house at the best possible quality. Apple Music and Airplay can't do that right now which makes using it for day to day listening a lot harder. Airplay can do straight 16 bit/44.1 CD quality lossless right now (it's been part of the standard since Airplay 1 was invented two decades ago). But I usually try to listen to HiRes audio these days if I can and that's going to be hard to feed my DACs which already connected to Roon.
Exchanging audio files between studios, mix and mastering sites, and record companies, is most often 44.1 or 48 kHz and 24 bits. The latter to preserve headroom for the mixing/mastering and encoding process, but the "extra" 8 bits doesn't really carry any useful information in most recordings (and can certainly not be heard in any normal reproduction system).
Isn't that what they said about "Quad" 45 years ago?
https://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_frequencycheckhigh.php
https://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_hearingtestaudiogram.php
https://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/hearing.html