(Pocket-lint) – Apple officially launched the new Spatial Audio feature on its Apple Music for iPhone, iPad and Mac users this week, bringing a new dimension to its customers’ music streaming experience.
Initially, as mentioned, it’s only available to subscribers using its own hardware. However, it will be coming to Android users soon as well.
We don’t know an exact date, but those of you with Apple Music subscriptions and Android phones will soon be able to listen to the Dolby Atmos-powered playlists and albums too.
In its initial announcement, Apple said: “By default, Apple Music will automatically play Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos tracks on all AirPods® and Beats headphones with an H1 or W1 chip, as well as the built-in speakers in the latest versions of iPhone®, iPad®, and Mac®. Spatial Audio on Apple Music will also be coming soon to Android devices.” [Emphasis ours].
For Apple users, both Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio launched on Monday this week, bringing Hi-Res and CD quality audio streaming to compatible devices. You can find out how to turn it on and get it working here.
Spatial Audio does what the name suggests, bringing a perception of being surrounded by sounds adding a sense of distance and direction to different parts of the track.
Having listened to a number of playlists and albums, some tracks lend themselves to it much better than others, and it’s very much a case of listening to a lot of music to find out which ones are better optimised.
Hopefully, if you’re an Android user, you won’t have to wait too long until you can discover it for yourself.
Writing by Cam Bunton.
