Apple Music to Incentivize Artists to Make Songs Available in Spatial Audio
Apple will begin encouraging artists and record labels to adopt Spatial Audio with royalty incentives, Bloomberg reports.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg says that Apple will prioritize streams of songs mixed in Dolby Atmos technology in its streaming calculations starting next year. The change will result in higher royalty payments for artists and labels that adopt and expand the technology in their catalogs. Listeners do not have to listen to the Spatial Audio version of a song for artists to be eligible for the added benefits, with the availability of tracks in Dolby Atmos being sufficient. The new Apple Music policy is yet to be publicly announced.
Apple Music introduced Spatial Audio support in 2021, using Dolby Atmos technology to ostensibly replicate an in-person music experience with sound coming from various directions around the listener when using compatible audio hardware. In February 2022, Apple announced that over half of the service's subscribers used the feature. Amazon Music similarly provides Dolby Atmos audio at no additional cost, but Spotify has yet to adopt the format.
Popular Stories
If Apple Music isn't working for you, you're not alone. According to Apple's System Status page, there's currently an Apple Music outage.
Apple says that users may be experiencing intermittent issues with the service. The outage started at 2:38 p.m. Eastern Time, and it is ongoing. We'll update this article when the outage has been...
Apple is expected to unveil iOS 27 during its WWDC 2026 keynote on June 8, and there are already many rumored features and changes for iPhones.
The first developer beta of iOS 27 will likely be available immediately following the keynote, and a public beta typically follows in July. Following beta testing, the software update should be released to all users with a compatible iPhone in...
Apple today released a new Pride Edition Sport Loop for the Apple Watch. The band features a rainbow design with 11 colors of woven nylon yarns.
The new Pride Edition Sport Loop is available to order now on Apple.com and in the Apple Store app in 40mm, 42mm, and 46mm sizes, and it will be available at Apple Store locations starting later this week. In the U.S., the band costs $49.
There...
