It’s not too often an Android app drops hints about Apple products, but the latest Apple Music beta may have spilled the beans about the HiFi audio tier rumoured to be coming to the app.
Within an APK teardown of the Apple Music app for Android, 9to5Google appears to have confirmed lossless audio feature is on the way to both iPhone and Android in the near future.
When looking within Apple Music 3.6.0 Beta currently available on the Play Store, there are several strings that reveal support for lossless audio (at up to 24-bit/192 kHz) is on the way.
You can see text below, some of which seeks to explain how much data users can expect to consume when playing hi-res, lossless audio. It reads:
Lossless audio files preserve every detail of the original file. Turning this on will consume significantly more data.
Lossless audio files will use significantly more space on your device. 10 GB of space could store approximately: – 3000 songs at high quality – 1000 songs with lossless – 200 songs with hi-res lossless
Lossless streaming will consume significantly more data. A 3-minute song will be approximately: – 1.5 MB with high efficiency- 6 MB with high quality at 256 kbps- 36 MB with lossless at 24-bit/48 kHz- 145 MB with hi-res lossless at 24-bit/192 kHzSupport varies and depends on song availability, network conditions, and connected speaker or headphone capability.
Apple Music for Android beta
Recent reports have suggested Apple is planning on adding the new tier within iOS 14.6, currently in beta and likely to roll out in the weeks to come. It’s not clear yet whether Apple will charge more for better quality audio or whether it’ll follow the same tactic it embraced when automatically upgrading movie purchases from HD to 4K. The latter would be nice, huh?
The original 9to5Mac report on the matter also suggested there’ll be support for “Dolby Atmos” and “Dolby Audio,” within the new tier, but whether Android users will get those options remains to be seen.
Spotify is also working on a HiFi tier, so it seems we have another music streaming race on our hands.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
