What is Lossless Audio? – Apple Music UPDATE
What is Lossless Audio? – Apple Music UPDATE
What is lossless audio? This Apple Music update improves your music listening experience. In this post, I’ll explain the benefits of lossless audio and how you can access it.
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Hi, I’m Dr. Derek – audiologist, audio engineer, and musician with ProFitHearing.com bringing you the best insight in today’s latest hearing aids, headphones, and audio technology to improve your life. If you have concerns about your hearing, always consult with your local physician or audiologist.
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What is Lossless Audio?
Today, music is available online in the form of digital audio. These digital audio files can be downloaded or they can be streamed from services like Apple Music and Spotify.
Data compression is used on music files to save space and to allow for faster downloads and streams. Data compression is either lossy or lossless. Lossy means some data is removed from the file without significantly impacting the overall sound quality, while lossless means the original data is retained.
MP3 & AAC
The most famous type of lossy compression is the MP3 file. MP3 stands for MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3. Another type of lossy compression is the AAC file which stands for Advanced Audio Codec. AAC is used by Apple Music. Remember that both MP3 and AAC remove data from the original audio file which means you are not hearing the original studio quality sound.
ALAC
Apple Music now offers lossless audio with your Apple Music subscription. It’s called Apple Lossless Audio Codec (or ALAC). So, you now have the option of listening to content on Apple Music in either lossless ALAC or lossy AAC formats. ALAC provides audio quality up to 24 bit/192 kHz. This is a very high resolution digital audio recording. The highest quality audio files (greater than 48 kHz) may require an external digital to analog converter depending on the playback device.
Bluetooth ≠ Lossless
One thing to note is that Bluetooth headphones do not support lossless audio, so you’ll need to enjoy this high quality sound with a pair of wired headphones or speakers. AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max all use Bluetooth and do not support lossless audio. This high quality audio also requires more data to stream and to store on your device.
How to Access High Quality Audio
So how do you access lossless audio within Apple Music?
Go to Settings -> Music -> Audio Quality
Here you can select Lossless Audio on or off and choose the desired quality settings for cellular streaming, wi-fi steaming, and downloads.
You can select High Efficiency or High quality AAC, Apple Music Lossless (up to 24-bit/48kHz), and High-Res Lossless (up to 24-bit/192kHz) for the entire music catalog on Apple Music. Remember that this high quality audio requires more data, so be mindful of that when using cellular data while streaming. Also, your device will maintain whichever digital audio file format you first downloaded. So, you may need to re-download the higher quality audio files.
What is Lossless Audio – Your Favorites?
What is your favorite music on Apple Music, and do you listen to it with lossless audio? Let me know in the comments below. If you received value from this post, go to https://www.youtube.com/profithearing and check out all the videos on our YouTube channel.
-Dr. Derek