Bloomberg News on Monday reports that Apple is planning to give “added weighting” to tracks that offer a Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos mix which could potentially increase Apple Music royalties to participating artists. The report adds that “listeners wouldn’t necessarily have to play the Atmos version of a song for artists to benefit. It only matters that the song is offered in that format.”
Ashley Carman for Bloomberg News:
Apple Inc. is offering incentives to artists and record labels to produce music using a spatial-audio technology that surrounds listeners in sound.
Starting next year, the company plans to give added weighting to streams of songs that are mixed in Dolby Atmos technology, according to people with knowledge of matter. That could mean higher royalty payments for artists who are first to embrace the technology made by Dolby Laboratories Inc., said the people, who asked not to be identified because the change hasn’t been announced.
Apple first introduced spatial audio to Apple Music in 2021. Supported by technology from Dolby Atmos, the format attempts to more closely mimic the way music sounds in-person where it can come from various points around the listener’s head.
Amazon Inc.’s Music app also offers Dolby Atmos-supported spatial audio to its users as part of their subscriptions at no extra cost. Spotify Technology SA doesn’t support the format.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple Music’s Spatial Audio is a huge advantage over Spotify.
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I found this related article very informative on the Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio technology.
https://www.whathifi.com/advice/dolby-atmos-music-everything-you-need-to-know
Also a cautionary article of a possible pitfall of Apple’s bounty program for those interested:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/apple-dolby-atmos-music-bounty-spatial-audio/