Apple makes Dolby Atmos and lossless playback available for Apple Music

Apple Music subscribers can choose to use the streaming service lossless. In addition, Apple has added support for Dolby Atmos for spatial reproduction of sound.

Several users of Apple Music and Apple sites such as 9to5Mac report that Dolby Atmos and lossless playback have been added to the settings. Subscribers can activate ‘Lossless Audio’ in the audio quality settings and then determine whether the lossless playback should be via mobile internet, WiFi and downloads, or whether it should remain at high quality per category to save bandwidth. As for Dolby Atmos, there is the choice to keep it always on, let it run automatically or turn off the audio format.

Apple announced back in May that Apple Music would get lossless playback and Dolby Atmos support, and that it would be available in June. That availability now follows at the start of Apple’s 2021 WWDC event. Apple uses its own lossless format, Apple Lossless Audio Codec, or ALAC. The entire collection of Music has been converted to ALAC, which not only plays with 16bit at 44.1kHz but also with 24bit at 192kHz. offers. The support applies to AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max and Beats headset, with Apple stating that the bluetooth connection and Apple AAC Bluetooth Codec are not lossless.

It is unclear whether Apple Music for Android will also receive the lossless update. Last month, 9to5Google reported that a beta of the app for Android revealed indications that ALAC support was coming to Apple Music for Android, but support for Dolby didn’t seem imminent.