Fresh from its announcement at WWDC 2021, Apple is releasing a series of new lossless audio and spatial audio playback features for Apple Music. Lossless audio promises higher-resolution songs up to true high-res audio quality, while spatial audio uses Dolby Atmos mastering for an immersive 360-degree effect.

This update is not yet available to all, so in the meantime it is worth making sure you have compatible hardware that these features require; Apple Music's lossless feature has particularly stringent requirements, and the Apple AirPods series Even the Apple AirPods series are not compatible.

Fortunately, spatial audio requirements are much lower; see our brief guide to devices and headphones that support Apple Music lossless and spatial audio.

First, let's understand what exactly the Apple Music lossless feature is and how it works. In general, lossless audio is audio that has been encoded to avoid the compression of most "lossy" audio formats. To make files smaller and easier to download, stream, or transmit over Bluetooth, lossy formats compress files and in doing so lose some of the data stored in the source file. The result is low-resolution music with inaudible detail.

Lossless formats also compress files, but in a way that prevents such data loss, potentially resulting in richer sounding music For Apple Music, Apple has developed its own Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) Apple developed its own Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) for Apple Music. CD quality" uses 16-bit/44.1 kHz resolution, and the highest 24-bit/192 kHz resolution is in the realm of true high-resolution audio.

Drawbacks; ALAC, as is usual with lossless formats, requires transmitting more data than a Bluetooth connection can handle.

Once the Apple Music app is updated to lossless audio, it should be playable on both Android devices and iOS hardware running iOS 14.6 or later; Apple TV devices should also be supported.

The tricky part is connecting that device to headphones or speakers. True lossless audio will not work over existing Bluetooth connections, and neither will ALAC content. Not even Apple AirPods, Apple AirPods Pro, or Apple AirPods Max. AirPods Max can connect to an iPhone or iPad via a wired connection, but unfortunately this does not work either.

The Apple HomePod and HomePod mini also do not currently offer lossless playback of Apple Music, but this is likely to change in a future update.

It is also worth noting that iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV devices can play 16-bit/44.1 kHz Apple Music lossless content, but cannot handle full 24-bit/192 kHz. To get the best resolution, an external DAC device must be connected. For more information on how to set this up, see the guide on how to play high-resolution music on the iPhone.

In short, to enjoy Apple Music lossless, you need wired headphones and an external DAC if you want CD or better sound quality.

For the best possible sound quality, we recommend Focal Clear, a member of our Best Over-Ear Headphones ranking, but decent wired headphones will suffice.

If you have AirPods Pro or AirPods Max, you have probably used or at least heard of spatial audio. When watching compatible videos, Spatial Audio creates a digital surround sound effect and can use the head-tracking sensors in these two pairs of headphones to maintain different sound origins as the user moves their head.

However, Apple Music works differently with spatial audio. Head tracking is absent because music playback does not require a screen; for video, the screen is used as an anchor point. Instruments and vocals are mapped onto a 360-degree sphere surrounding the listener, creating a more immersive effect than standard stereo.

Apple Music spatial audio is also compatible with Dolby Atmos mastering. Since songs must be available in the Atmos format, fewer spatial audio songs are available on Apple Music than lossless, but the good news is that they can be enjoyed on a wider range of hardware.

Thankfully, Apple Music's spatial audio efforts are more relaxed about which headphones to use. In fact, Apple has stated that any headphones will support spatial audio, not just AirPods. Wired or wireless, it doesn't matter.

There is still some benefit to using Apple's own headphones or earbuds, as Apple Music will automatically play songs with spatial audio when AirPods are connected. certain Beats headphones, including Beats X, Beats Flex, and Powerbeats Pro Beats headphones also have this benefit. The full list can be found on Apple's support site.

For other headphones, you must manually enable Dolby Atmos by going to "Settings" and then "Music" and setting Dolby Atmos to "Always On."

You should also get a more immersive effect from Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers, including the best soundbars. Apple also states that spatial audio will work with the built-in speakers of the iPhone XR and later (except the iPhone SE 2020) and recent iPads, but for best results, headphones or more powerful Atmos speakers are recommended.HomePod and HomePod mini also work.

While spatial audio offers a much wider choice of playback devices, it has the drawback that the source device is essentially limited to Apple's own hardware. This means that the Apple Music app on Android does not include Dolby Atmos support. Here are the source devices that Apple Music spatial audio supports: