Apple Inc. is reportedly planning to incentivize artists to release songs in Dolby Atmos, the spatial audio format that offers an enhanced listening experience. According to Bloomberg, Apple aims to provide better royalty payments to tracks mixed in Dolby Atmos, potentially encouraging more artists and labels to adopt the format.
Beginning next year, Apple plans to give added importance to streams of songs mixed using Dolby Atmos technology. This move could result in higher royalty payments for artists who embrace this technology developed by Dolby Laboratories Inc.
Significantly, artists would benefit from this new policy even if users don’t listen to their songs in Dolby Atmos. It only matters that the song is made available in that format. However, to experience Apple Music songs in Dolby Atmos, users require Apple or Beats Bluetooth headphones, or an iPhone, iPad, or Mac with Dolby Atmos speakers.
Spatial audio is predominantly associated with movies and is relatively niche in the music industry. Alongside Amazon, Apple has been endeavoring to make spatial audio more accessible in music, offering it as part of its music subscription service at no additional cost two years ago. Nevertheless, the selection of songs available in spatial audio on Apple Music remains limited.
If Apple succeeds in persuading more artists, including those with existing songs, to release content in Dolby Atmos, it could potentially entice more people to try Apple Music. Despite this effort, Spotify still holds the upper hand, despite lacking spatial audio support. A broader range of spatial audio content is likely to boost sales of Apple hardware, including AirPods and HomePods.
By embracing Dolby Atmos, Apple is pushing to revolutionize the music listening experience, providing artists with greater incentive to adopt this cutting-edge technology. With increased popularity, spatial audio could become more mainstream, enhancing the overall appeal and competitiveness of Apple Music in the streaming industry.
