How to use lossless audio on Apple Music
8 June 2021, 20:15
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Here's how to get and enable Lossless Audio on Apple Music and everything else you need to know about it.
Lossless audio is now available for people to use on Apple Music but you need certain headphones to be able to listen to it.
Today (Jun 8), Apple Music upgraded its listening experience by making Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos and lossless audio available to all users. Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos is a new listening format designed to give people a clearer and more immersive listening experience and it's available on all headphones but lossless audio isn't quite as accessible for now.
READ MORE: How to get Spatial Audio on Apple Music
With that in mind, we've put together a detailed guide that lets you know if you can use lossless audio with your devices.
What is lossless audio and how do I enable it?
Apple Music offers all of its music in AAC (Advance Audio Codec). This, in their words, is "virtually indistinguishable from the original studio recording" but it loses "some amount of the data that's contained in the original source file". By comparison, "lossless compression preserves all of the original data" and it's now available on Apple Music at no additional cost.
The downside to lossless audio, however, is that it uses up significantly more data to stream than AAC audio. Downloaded lossless files also take up much more space on devices than AAC files, so make sure to take this into consideration if you plan on upgrading your audio to lossless.
As it stands, Spotify does not offer lossless audio so you need Apple Music or TIDAL to get it.
What headphones are compatible with lossless audio?
You can only listen to lossless audio with wired headphones. In other words, AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max and Beats wireless headphones aren't compatible with lossless audio. However, you can listen to Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos via wireless headphones.
It's also worth noting that you're unlikely to hear a strong difference between lossless audio and AAC audio on poor quality headphones. You need to invest in a pair of high-quality wired headphones for lossless audio to be worthwhile.
How do I use lossless audio on iPhone and iPad?
1) Subscribe to Apple Music and upgrade your device to the latest version of iOS.
2) Go to Settings > Music.
3) Click on Audio Quality.
4) Press Lossless Audio to turn it on and off.
If you've previously downloaded music in AAC quality you will need to delete and redownload it to get it in lossless quality.
How do I use lossless audio on Mac?
1) Subscribe to Apple Music and upgrade your device to the latest version of iOS.
2) Open Apple Music and in the menu bar click Music > Preferences.
3) Press the Playback tab.
4) Under Audio Quality, select or unselect Lossless to turn it on or off.
If you've previously downloaded music in AAC quality you will need to delete and redownload it to get it in lossless quality.
Can I get Apple Music lossless audio on Android?
Yes. You can. To enable it, simply visit the Apple Music settings on your android and follow the same steps as you would on an iPhone or iPad.
READ MORE: Apple Music Replay 2021: How to find your most played songs and artists of the year
