Apple Music Apple's Spatial Audio Playlists/lots on non Spatial tracks

[Julien]

Looking through the Apple Music Spatial Audio Playlists you see MANY tracks that are not Atmos. Is this a mistake or are they being updated dynamically by Apple?

So will they all be Atmos in a couple of days are is this a case of Apple missing the mark?

 

[RebelTrust]

Apple's Support page says "if every song on an album is available in Dolby Atmos, you’ll see the Dolby Atmos badge on the album’s detail page." So it looks like not every song on the Abbey Road album is in Atmos which is why the badge is not there. That song, Here Comes the Sun (2019 Mix), specifically is in Dolby Atmos.

 

[Julien]

OK, but still a little odd. For instance several of the Beatles albums (complete) including Abby Road were mastered in Atmos a couple of years ago. Hopefully Apple just needs to get around to uploading. Also there are MANY others that are this way. Hopefully since a least one track is now available it means the entire album was mastered and will be updated.

Of course this seems a a little strange since they seemed to have updated a lot to lossless.

 

[BeatCrazy]

I'm actually pretty savvy at this audio stuff, but for situations like the Beatles Abbey Road Super Deluxe Edition, I'm stumped.

There's a genuine 5.1 (non-Atmos) mix of this album (I own it). But are we getting a stereo version of "Here Comes The Sun" that has matrixed Atmos that decodes the 2.0 signal? There's no discrete 5.1 + Atmos music available via Apple Music, right?

 

[Julien]

I'm actually pretty savvy at this audio stuff, but for situations like the Beatles Abbey Road Super Deluxe Edition, I'm stumped.

There's a genuine 5.1 (non-Atmos) mix of this album (I own it). But are we getting a stereo version of "Here Comes The Sun" that has matrixed Atmos that decodes the 2.0 signal? There's no discrete 5.1 + Atmos music available via Apple Music, right?

Hee is a link to Abby Road.

The BEATLES – Abbey Road Anniversary Editions

abbeyroad.thebeatles.com

 

[Eric Idle]

Really odd that Apple didnt include a few Pink Floyd songs to demonstrate the sound quality of this technology.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Hee is a link to Abby Road.

The BEATLES – Abbey Road Anniversary Editions

abbeyroad.thebeatles.com

Ok. But neither you nor that link answered my question.

 

[BeatCrazy]

I'm actually pretty savvy at this audio stuff, but for situations like the Beatles Abbey Road Super Deluxe Edition, I'm stumped.

There's a genuine 5.1 (non-Atmos) mix of this album (I own it). But are we getting a stereo version of "Here Comes The Sun" that has matrixed Atmos that decodes the 2.0 signal? There's no discrete 5.1 + Atmos music available via Apple Music, right?

Quoting myself here, because with a bit of experimentation, I did find out the answer to the above situation, I hope it helps others.

With Atmos tracks, you are getting a real, discrete bit-stream, lossless version of the track, via AppleTV 4K. Essentially the same you get from recent BD/4K UHD material.

This is great news, all around And I consider it the final death knell for the "legacy" hi-res surround formats from the early 00's - SACD and DVD-A (I own hundreds). We now have support from Apple, devices in millions of homes, and content that you get by pressing a button. No going to the store to find a disc, no backwards compatibility issues.