The next generation of sound on Apple Music is coming to subscribers June 2021 at no additional cost
Apple Music’s catalog of more than 75 million songs will be available in Lossless Audio.
Well, looks like it’s official now - another lossless service in the mix with Apple starting in June. It’s free for all Apple Music subscribers. Great news for people living in the Apple ecosystem. I’m already regretting my Roon lifetime subscription.
can someone call me when amazon or apple get exclusive mode working right? that’s why i switched from amazon to qobuz in the first place and i’m probably not switching to apple. kthx.
I would not be surprised if Apple or some other huge conglomerate purchased Roon. If I were purchasing today, I wouldn’t have bought a lifetime subscription, but stayed in the annual renewal process. My lifetime sub is over five years old now, so it’s all house money now, but lots has changed in the past five years.
I’m going to let Qobuz expire at the end of my annual and stick with Tidal. Comes down to duplication, but Tidal works better with the DAPs. Not an MQA fan either. I may have to give Apple Music a look. I’m already deep into the Apple Ecosystem.
Exactly the reason why, aside from my Roon work account, I will not buy a lifetime subscription.
I won’t pay today something that I can’t know what will be tomorrow.
I know Roon since ten years now because of my records reviewing job but it doesn’t apply to the future of the company.
The changes with Audirvana are an example.
Now we have a new train of lossless music service announced (Spotify, Apple) and we can’t know today what will they and the software services be tomorrow.
It is a tough choice. When I went lifetime it was $499 and there was very little in the way of competition. I still use JRIVER, Audirvana, and a couple of other manufacturer music apps (Aurender and Bryston). Roon still rules the roost with respect to UI, but the other manufacturers and services are gaining ground. It really depends on your what your needs are.
If Roon disappeared tomorrow, I have alternatives. And I’ve definitely got my money’s worth.
I also wonder if Apple will enable or add sample rate-switching to iTunes/Music…that would be an interesting and most likely permanent solution to most basic audiophile players on the Mac. If that happened, it could get me to switch from audirvana 3.5 to iTunes.
From their FAQ…
“You can listen to lossless audio using the latest Apple Music app on an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV.7 Turn on lossless audio in Settings > Music > Audio Quality. You can choose between Lossless and Hi-Res Lossless for cellular or Wi-Fi connections. Note that Hi-Res Lossless requires external equipment such as a USB digital to analog converter.”
Unsurprisingly, AirPods, AirPods Pro and AirPods Max will NOT work with the new lossless files. They’re still going to be using AAC.
My bet is the next generation of each of the AirPods products adds Apple’s UWB chip, and a proprietary CODEC, to let them overcome Bluetooth’s bandwidth/CODEC limitations*.
*Yes, I know that Bluetooth can theoretically deliver as much as 2Mb/s of bandwidth, which is more than the 1.4Mb/s needed for 16/44.1 in stereo, but that’s in ideal conditions which never occur in real-life usage.
I find it fascinating how they are beating Spotify to the punch on this. Spotify announced lossless streaming months ago, but with no specific date for the rollout. Apple says “come with us, we’ll give it to you right now.” Smart move to pick up the market share from Tidal before Spotify can.
Smart move or bully move. Deep-pocketed Apple and Amazon are playing rough for market share. The costs will go down for end users, but I wonder if Tidal, Qobuz, and Spotify can compete for long.
True. It seems like Qobuz has the market cornered for hi res audiophile music (you know - the stuff we listen to that regular people don’t ). That’s a niche, though, and probably not enough to sustain them if Apple & Spotify come in and syphon off the bulk of their subscribers.
Personally, I will be keeping my Qobuz subscription, and supplementing it with either Apple lossless or Spotify lossless.
As for Tidal and their overpriced questionable quality streaming? Let them eat cake.
I love Qobuz for their curation and their deep catalog of hi res jazz, classical, & other obscure ‘audiophile bullshit’. Overall, though, their catalog is lacking a lot of the mainstream stuff and is especially weak in edm. If any one of the big services offers a decent selection of 96khz+ streaming, qobuz is probably toast, too.
I will say this, though: at this point Qobuz’s high resolution streaming audio quality is the best around.
Most of my streaming is Primephonic (classical) but I was using Tidal for random music. Enough that I felt I needed to keep it. But with Amazon, Apple and Spotify entering the HD scene Tidal can shove it. Just got to figure out which is the best of the other services for me all around.
Im more interested in SQ than UI as UI I can deal with but poor SQ, not so much.
Might also mean I can drop Roon, which is a further savings as I dont have a huge library of files (yet). Im OK with Audi 3.5 and am quite used to flipping between open windows on my laptop. Looks like the dream of having an ultimate all in one interface are fading.
I think Spotify could have competed if they jumped into high res sooner and established themselves. However, it may be a sinking ship unless they really get into the podcasts and streaming other content. The masses thinking MQA is some kind of magic may keep Tidal going for a while but I can see the big guys start to dismantle the MQA propaganda. Hopefully they do not buy in to it.
You guys are kidding, right? Spotify is the 800 pound gorilla in the room here, not Apple or Amazon. Spotify is going to be just fine either way, the rest of them are jockeying for second place.
True. But if they wanted to take the #1 spot that way they would have done it years ago. Spotify’s market share is still nearly double Apple’s, and lossless streaming isn’t likely to change that.
). That’s a niche, though, and probably not enough to sustain them if Apple & Spotify come in and syphon off the bulk of their subscribers.
Overall, though, their catalog is lacking a lot of the mainstream stuff and is especially weak in edm. If any one of the big services offers a decent selection of 96khz+ streaming, qobuz is probably toast, too.