2y ago

Apple might soon pay artists more for offering their music in Atmos

www.theverge.com

15 comments

I have some AirPods that can do spacial audio, and I’ve yet to hear a track where I was like, “oh wow, that added so much!”
- I disabled Atmos. Literally every song I tested sounded noticeably better in Stereo. Atmos makes sense for movies, but I’m convinced Atmos music is snake oil.
  
  I use it on my Sonos atmos setup. It really is kinda hit or miss right now. I can see it working in classical music, there’s some excellent recording by the Berlin philharmonic in atmps which gives you the feeling of being in the concert hall.
  Dunno about my heavy metal music though.
  
  Some albums work better in Atmosphere than others, some felt quite immersive while others were just weird.
  I guess it will take time to figure out the best way to mix recordings for it. Stereo has been the dominant format in music for so long, unlike video (which has its own problems with surround sound now).
- I might be a weirdo with faulty ears but spatialized audio makes huge difference to me on AirPods Pro 2. Hand-made Dolby Atmos mixes don't offer much over that though tbh.
  
  Maybe it’s my hardware, too. I have first gen AirPods Pro, and the spacial music simply hasn’t been impressive on them.
- Gojira. Their song sounds amazing in Atmos.
I use Logic Pro to make music, which allows you to mix in Atmos. Maybe I'll give this a try in one of my future releases. I'm not sure how I can get the atmos format into Apple Music though, since it needs to be uploaded via distributor, and distributors push your music to all platforms at the same time.

15 comments