A new announcement in the Apple Music app on all platforms reveals that a special event will be held at 12pm PT on June 7, a few hours after the WWDC keynote. The special event is focused on Spatial Audio on Apple Music, which was announced in May and is expected to roll out to all subscribers for free later this month.
Apple to introduce Apple Music Spatial Audio during a special event on June 7
Apple Music Lossless and Spatial Audio are going to bring high-resolution audio quality and 3D audio capabilities to the service. The announcement video simply focuses on Spatial Audio, and talks about how music is about to change forever and “we are leaving stereo” behind with Spatial Audio, powered by Dolby Atmos. Apple explains it as a premium experience in which sound moves all around the listener. If you use AirPods Pro or AirPods Max to listen to the announcement, you can listen to the Spatial Audio effects in their full glory.
Apple has first released Spatial Audio support for AirPods Pro in June 2020, along with automatic device switching. Apple TV+ content and iTunes movies and TV shows library have content that is encoded with Spatial Audio support, powered by Dolby Atmos. With Apple Music Spatial Audio, this feature will be available for thousands of songs and albums for AirPods and Beats headphones with W1 or H1 chips, as well as the latest iPhone, iPad, and Mac models.
It is surprising that Apple is holding an event to introduce Spatial Audio, after announcing it via just a press release last month. The company has also specifically chosen to focus just on Spatial Audio and makes no mention of Lossless audio, which is perhaps the bigger feature between the two.
It is also important to remember that while Spatial Audio will work with all AirPods and Beats headphones with H1 and W1 chips, Lossless audio will not work with Apple’s own headphones. Users will need to purchase high-quality headphones that support high-resolution audio, as well as use an external DAC if they are listening on an iPhone or iPad.
