Following the launch of Apple Music’s new Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos feature today, the company has published a curated playlist of 100 songs to best showcase the immersive new format.
The Made for Spatial Audio playlist includes modern tracks from The Weeknd, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish and Kanye West. The classics haven’t been ignored with The Beatles, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Blondie and The Rolling Stones featured within the new listing.
The idea is to showcase the benefits of the new atmospheric, surround-sound like experience within a number of genres from a number of eras.
The playlist, which Apple Music subscribers can access here, is accompanied by a blog post from Zane Lowe, Apple Music’s co-head of Artist Relations and Beats 1 radio host, extolling the virtues of the feature, which is available at no extra cost. He likens the advance to the switch from mono to stereo.
The New Zealander waxes lyrical (no pun indented) about the manner in which the new tech can move the listener around in different directions, while theorising about how modern artists will use the tech to push innovation within music creation.
He wrote: “It was hard to put into words because I’ve spent my whole life in a two-channel environment; I was born into stereo. It dawned on me that there are a lot of artists in the past and present who would have loved to be able to lean in with this kind of technology — to make their songs come to life, make them bigger, and just take them to levels no one had even thought of yet. But they only had two stereo channels to play with. Now they can go beyond that. So, to be able to hear parts of these songs coming from behind and around me? I was like, “I’m all in. I get it.” TV got HD — now music gets Spatial.”
You might like…
He added: “I believe what is going to happen is that artists will start to hear things they haven’t heard before. Imagine Billy Corgan saying to the engineer, “When I created the guitar at the beginning of ‘Quiet’ in 1993 I wanted it to be heard from three-and-a-half miles behind you, and then I want it to land in front of your face in 3.2 seconds just as Jimmy Chamberlin’s drums begin.” Now, obviously, I’m not Billy Corgan and I just made that up. But if I can think about how it’s going to go, imagine what he’s going to do?”
We’ve got a full guide to Spatial Audio on Apple Music, the supported devices, headphones and how to access it. Does it live up to the epochal billing? Let us know @trustedreviews on Twitter.
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.
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.
