The Future of Music is Here

Since the beginning of music, monophonic sound (music coming from one channel) have been listened to. Throughout the 30’s and 40’s everything was produced in mono. However, in the 1960’s music transitioned into the new era, stereophonic technology. This new way of listening to music created by Alan Blumlein changed music forever. But when is the new era coming? And how will we know? Is it already here?

Apple Music

Apple Music. The tech giant: Apples’ music streaming service that was created to compete with Spotify and launched in June 30th, 2015. Apple Music was good. It was Apple good. However, at the time it was just Apple’s Spotify. Why would you want to switch? Over time, Apple developed Apple Music seamlessly into their ecosystem, making many Apple lovers (such as myself) choose it. This caused a big dispute among music streamers as to which one was better; which one was more premium. Spotify streamed music in MP3 files, whereas Apple Music streamed in AAC files. Which is essentially Apple’s version of MP3 files. Does this make a difference in sound? No. Does it make you choose one over the other? No. Did the arguments get worse? Yes.

Why? Because of the loyal fan base of each. If you were an Apple freak, you were most likely team Apple Music if you weren’t then you were most likely team Spotify. But neither of them actually improved the one thing that served as their purpose: listening to music.

Tidal

Thats where Tidal comes in. Tidal advertized as the “Premium music service for Audiofiles” This was and still is controversial, as Tidal uses MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) to achieve the high quality sound. Does this work? Well… yes and no.

Even thought Tidal claims 24-bit/192 KHz sound quality, the files are still quite lossy and shouldn’t be treated as a “lossless” streaming service.

The Future of Music

Fast forward to 2021 and everything changed. Spotify announced that they are going Hi-Fi (check out my article here on that). Amazon went lossless. Qobuzz; a lossless streaming service was released. This means that Tidal won’t be the only streaming service in the lossless game. However, this also meant that Apple Music had some catching up to do…

Shortly after Spotify announced their lossless service, Apple Music announced their ‘next big thing’. Apple Music lossless and Dolby Atmos with Spatial Audio.

What is Dolby Atmos?

Dolby Atmos is a way for music to break free of the limitations of mono and stereo and exist in a 3D surround sound system. This allows you to hear audio all around you and even above you. Dolby Atmos has been used for years in movie audio technologies (such as sound bars) but not particularly used in music… until now!

Why Would Dolby Atmos be Good for Music?

Dolby Atmos allows the listener to feel immersed in the music. It makes you feel like you’re in a new dimension of sound. It creates better separation of instruments and allows you to hear the drums in front of you, guitar to the left, bass to the right! It doesn’t make you feel like you’re listening to the music on your headphones. It makes you feel like you’re sitting in the middle of the stage AROUND the band. AROUND the instruments.

How Good is it Really?

Once it was released late June, I just had to try it out. And that’s what I did!

When listening to a range of songs across multiple genres, Lossless music provided much more clarity and depth to the music. I was able to listen to things I didn’t hear before or only slightly heard before and it made me feel like I was listening to my favorite songs for the first time again. CD quality music sounded good but it was the lossless and Hi-Res Lossless tiers that I really enjoyed. There aren’t many songs that currently support Hi-Res Lossless in 24-bit/96 KHz, and even less support 24-bit/192KHz, but those songs that did sound immaculate. This (obviously) also fixed my main issue with Apple Music; how quiet the music was.

Next on the hot seat was Dolby Atmos with Apple’s Spatial Audio. Immediately, I found that Dolby atmos was significantly quieter than the lossless counterpart of the song. While yes, it is a surround sound that is incomparable, the volume really took that “immersive” experience from the music. A lot of sounds I haven’t heard before zoomed from all around me, and the reverb sounded huge. But the vocals and bass were drowned out, and the drums lost their punch. There was an overall cut in the mids which took a lot of punch from the songs. A good example of this would be “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns ‘n’ Roses. The guitar solos got quieter and louder and would get enveloped under everything else in some parts of the main solo. However, the drums have thumping kick to them which sounds great!

Dolby Atmos works best with slower songs mostly. The piano sounds beautiful and the vocals sound heavenly as they both incapsulate you in the emotions that seap from the song. However, the song that I believe works the best in Dolby Atmos is “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen. You can hear every vocal layer around you in different parts of space, the drums sound kickass upon their dramatic entry and the guitar solo makes you feel like you are Brian May as he plays the beautiful melody. The chime that plays from left to right as he sings “send shivers down my spine” has been put closer to you and sounds beautiful. The bass notes of the piano on your left, the treble notes on your right, as if you’re Freddy as you play the gorgeous piano riff.

AMAZING!

How Dows this Compete?

I know what you’re thinking: “Okay, but how does this compare to Tidal? Really well actually! When listening to Apple Music it sounds clear and crisp. However, when going back to Tidal it sounds like the mids have been cut and sounds almost harsh on the ears. Therefore, Apple Music is now the KING of Audio Quality in streaming services!

Final Thoughts

While I definitely think Apple Lossless audio has dethroned tidal and tidal’s Master quality, I do believe that Dolby atmos needs some work. This can be fixed in the future updates but as of right now, I wouldn’t recommend Dolby atmos for headphones and AirPods. However, if you have a true surround sound speaker system, definitely give this a try as you might just find your new way of listening to your music!