It takes a extremely particular client to purchase an Android telephone, but use Apple Music. However the small overlap in that venn diagram could also be getting larger. Final month at WWDC, Apple unveiled a free replace for Apple Music subscribers that added lossless audio streaming and spatial audio with help for Dolby Atmos. Now, Android customers can entry these options too.
Final 12 months, Google shut down its Google Play Music app (RIP) with the intent for customers emigrate to YouTube Music. Some longtime Android followers are nonetheless unpleased about that call and don’t really feel that YouTube Music is as much as par — however for audiophiles, these Apple Music updates is perhaps what it takes to get them to change. Nonetheless, not all Android gadgets help Atmos but.
Apple Music isn’t the one streaming platform ramping up its audio high quality. On the identical day that Apple introduced its upgraded audio options at WWDC, Amazon Music additionally introduced that it could help lossless streaming and spatial audio with Atmos performance. Like Apple, Amazon provides these enhancements at no additional price for subscribers. Spotify plans to launch a lossless audio function as nicely referred to as HiFi, however it will likely be a premium add-on, somewhat than a free improve like Apple Music or Amazon Music. YouTube Music doesn’t but provide a comparable function.
At the moment, Spotify leads the streaming trade with 158 million paid subscribers. For comparability, Apple Music had 60 million subscribers in June 2019, and Amazon Music had 55 million in January 2020, however each firms haven’t shared up to date numbers since then; YouTube Music has at the least 20 million paid customers. Even on consumer-grade headphones, you’ll be able to hear the distinction between a lossless FLAC file and a compressed mp3 — however in case you’re such a eager audiophile that you could take heed to master-quality audio, simply get Tidal.