Apple Music with Dolby Atmos spatial audioTodd Haselton | CNBC
Apple rolled out a really cool new Dolby Atmos surround sound feature to Apple Music this week that might help it attract and keep subscribers as it competes with streaming music leader Spotify.
Dolby Atmos spatial audio makes it feel a bit more like music is surrounding you while using headphones, instead of just piping into your left and right ears. Songs with Dolby Atmos are available for free, so long as you’re already an Apple Music subscriber. Dolby Atmos is also available through Amazon Music HD and TIDAL subscriptions, while Deezer uses Sony’s competing version, 360 Reality Audio, for its Deezer HiFi service. Spotify doesn’t yet have a Dolby Atmos option.
I’m not an audiophile, and I can’t usually tell the difference between some of the higher-quality tracks music services have started to roll out. But there’s a noticeable difference between regular stereo music and these new “Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos” songs. At least, most of the time. The difference is more noticeable in some songs than others.
There are only thousands of tracks, out of the 75 million in Apple Music, with support for it right now, but Apple
