Apple has seemingly hit its goal of transitioning its entire Apple Music catalog to Lossless streaming. The company initially launched the feature with 20 million songs that supported the streaming format. Launched as part of Apple’s WWDC 2021 keynote, Lossless Audio refers to audio up to 48kHz, they are very large files and use much more bandwidth and storage space than standard AAC files.
Apple’s extensive Apple Music catalog now features Lossless Audio
As reported by 9to5Mac, it appears that the Cupertino tech giant has achieved its goal of transitioning its entire Apple Music catalog to Lossless Audio. While there has been no official announcement on Apple’s part, the publication notes that “after searching for a ton of artists, we couldn’t find a single, EP, album, collection, or greatest hits collection that wasn’t available in Lossless.”
Lossless audio refers to audio recordings that have been compressed without any reduction in the overall quality of the audio, which can result in an improved listening experience. While the quality of the music a user is listening to should be better in theory, it would be hard to tell the difference if you are listening to it on a pair of cheap earphones. Strangely enough, Apple’s own AirPods, including the $549 AirPods Max do not support the streaming format. Apple has confirmed that they do not support Lossless streaming even if they are plugged in using a lightning cable.
In addition to Lossless, Apple also offers a higher tier in the form of Hi-Res Lossless up to 24 bit at 192 kHz (kilohertz) compared to the standard streaming format starting at 16 bit at 44.1 kHz and going up to 24 bit at 48 kHz. The Hi-Res Lossless format requires that users have a DAC in order to fully take advantage of it.
Note that Lossless streaming does consumer more data compared to regular streaming. So, if you are using streaming over cellular, you could burn through your data faster than normal.
Learn how to enable Apple Music Lossless Audio on iPhone here.
Read more:
