Apple Confirms Lossless Audio and Spatial Audio Are Coming to Apple Music June 2021

Apple announced that Apple Music will be offering Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos tracks, as well as offering its entire catalog in Lossless Audio, at no additional cost for subscribers, starting June 2021. Lossless will use ALAC file format, and support 24-bit/48kHz as standard, with Hi-Res Lossless Audio files available up to 24-bit/192kHz. Apple is even promoting the fact that Hi-Res Lossless will require external equipment, such as a USB digital-to-analog converter (DAC)!

It all started with an article from Billboard that stated: "On Wednesday (August 7) Apple Music announced the launch of Apple Digital Masters, a new initiative by the streaming giant that combines all of its "Mastered for iTunes" offerings into one global catalog. This is the company's first public acknowledgement of the initiative, which it has been quietly unveiling for some time." And suddenly the story was all over the place. But Apple didn't actually announce anything. Or at least, there was no official press release from Apple to be found confirming the story.

IK Multimedia announced the latest update to its sophisticated Lurssen Mastering Console software for Mac/PC and iOS, now allowing musicians to create "Mastered for iTunes" specification compliant audio masters for digital distribution services like iTunes, Spotify, Pandora and more. The new “Digital Delivery Mastering” feature now introduces support for those popular digital distribution services and also adds five new music style presets.

Positive Grid and Apple joined forces on the Final Touch App for iPad to add real-time auditioning through the Apple AAC encoder, providing accurate level metering and preparation for Mastered for iTunes process on a Mac. Final Touch combines seven essential mastering tools into one integrated system and is available for download at the iTunes App Store.