Try it now on your iPhone! How to enjoy Apple Music "Spatial Audio" | Mynavi News Mynavi News Mynavi

"Spatial audio" is now available as a new content service for Apple Music.Try it now with your iPhone, earphones & headphones

You can enjoy the spatial audio of Apple Music for 980 yen per month.

Apple Music distributes over 75 million songs in a variety of genres and artists. You can also watch music videos and listen to free internet radio "Apple Music 1" programs. Apple Music supports a wide range of Apple iPhones, including iPads, Macs, Apple TVs, and other playback devices, as well as Android devices and listening with a web browser.

In addition to the "Individual Plan" that can be used for 980 yen per month, there is also a "Family Plan" that allows you to enjoy simultaneous playback while sharing an account with up to 5 users in addition to registered users. Students can use the "Student Plan", which is a great deal for 480 yen per month.

The first time you sign up for an Apple Music membership, you'll get a three-month free trial period. There is no advertisement display. You can try all the 3D audio content that started on June 8th for free, so it is recommended that you first experience the power of 3D audio. After the trial period ends, you can enjoy Apple Music for the same monthly fee as before, even if the content that supports spatial audio increases.

This time, in addition to 2D spatial audio, I would like to introduce another newly launched lossless audio of Apple Music, focusing on how to enjoy it on the iPhone.

Powerful surround playback with iPhone's built-in speaker

Let's start with spatial audio. The official name of the new content released on Apple Music is "Spatial Audio by Dolby Atmos".

Dolby Atmos is a unique stereophonic technology developed by Dolby Laboratories. Apple calls the premium 3D music experience itself, which uses a variety of technologies that can be enjoyed on Apple devices, including Dolby Atmos content playback, as "Spatial Audio" (Spatial Audio in English). Therefore, I think that spatial audio that adopts 3D sound technology other than Dolby Atmos may be added as new content of Apple Music one after another.

This time, let's introduce how to enjoy this Dolby Atmos 3D audio on your iPhone. From now on, the official name will be abbreviated as "spatial audio" again.

Spatial audio can be enjoyed on iPhones with iOS 14.6 or higher installed. iOS 14.6 can be installed on iPhone 6s / 6s Plus and models released after the first generation iPhone SE.

The simplest way is to listen to 3D audio through the iPhone's built-in speaker. As far as I've tried, the latest generation iPhone 12 series has the most powerful built-in speaker and good sound quality, so I think that it is also excellent in the presence of spatial audio.

You might think, "You can't really enjoy surround playback with the iPhone's built-in speakers," but anyone can see the difference as soon as they play a song that supports 3D audio. The sound is rich and powerful, and you can feel the presence of natural surround sound. Spatial audio by Dolby Atmos of Apple Music is much sharper and more energetic than other smartphones that support Dolby Atmos playback. The author found it attractive to be aggressive in attracting listeners.

Portable playback with AirPods Max / AirPods Pro is recommended

Speaker playback is limited to an environment where you can freely play sound, especially when you are away from home. Even if you listen quietly at home, the listening position that you listen to directly in front of the iPhone is originally the best when playing speakers, but if you can not stop and listen all the time, you want to prepare an environment where you can listen with earphones or headphones. is.

Apple's wireless earphones "AirPods Pro" or wireless headphones "AirPods Max" are the best combination for 3D audio. When you play the spatial audio content of Apple Music, not only can you use the function that automatically plays with Dolby Atmos, but also the presence and power of the sound is a bit different.

At the start of the service, there are thousands of songs that support the spatial audio of Apple Music. These songs can also be enjoyed in conventional stereo playback. If you open the "Settings" app on iOS and set the setting item of "Dolby Atmos" lined up in "Music" to "Automatic", in addition to the AirPods series, Beats by Dr. Dre with a built-in Apple W1 / Apple H1 chip For wireless earphones / headphones, the spatial audio version is automatically selected and played.

If you want to listen in the same stereo playback as before, switch this setting to "Off".

If you select the Dolby Atmos setting to "Always on" here, you can listen to 3D audio using wireless / wired earphones / headphones from manufacturers other than Apple and Beats mentioned above. In other words, any iPhone user with iOS 14.6 or later can easily listen to 3D audio with the earphones and headphones at hand.

Enjoy 3D audio with earphones and headphones made by other companies

I also listened to spatial audio content with Sony's wireless headphones "WH-1000XM4". After all, I was very happy to enjoy the very vivid and expansive surround playback. The point that "the sound improves" when the original ability of headphones is high is exactly the same as the conventional stereo playback in the case of spatial audio. If you are satisfied with the services of Apple Music, you may want to try upgrading your environment with a slightly higher grade earphones and headphones.

You can enjoy 3D audio playback in an environment of 14.6 or higher for iPadOS and 11.4 or higher for macOS. For Apple TV 4K, update to tvOS 14.6 or higher, then output to Apple's HomePod speakers, connect to an audio device that supports Dolby Atmos with an HDMI cable, or use Bluetooth with earphones such as the AirPods series as with the iPhone. -You can listen to spatial audio by connecting to headphones.

For iPhone, the best way to find thousands of songs that support spatial audio newly added to Apple Music is from the "Spatial Audio Playlist" in the "Find" tab when you open the "Music" app. It's simple. The corresponding songs will be marked with the "Dolby Atmos" logo on the playback screen unless the Dolby Atmos setting in the app is set to "Off".

Apple Music will also support "Dynamic Head Tracking" after the fall

Spatial audio can now be enjoyed with Apple's original video works that can be played on Apple TV from September of last year, or Dolby Atmos-compatible video content that can be purchased and rented from the iTunes Store.

For spatial audio in video productions, use earphones and headphones in addition to an immersive three-dimensional music experience that surrounds you with sound in an environment where compatible iPhones and iPads are connected to Apple's AirPods Max or AirPods Pro. Even if you turn your face while wearing it, you can hear voices and sound effects from the screen without blurring the sound of the content, which is accompanied by another unique listening experience called "Dynamic Head Tracking".

Apple announced on June 10th that Apple Music's spatial audio content will also support this dynamic head tracking from this fall. I hope that Apple Music music videos, which are not yet compatible with 3D audio, can be listened to with this dynamic head tracking.

Next time, I will show you how to easily enjoy "Lossless Audio" of Apple Music on iPhone.

Author: Atsushi Yamamoto

Journalist and writer. He became a freelancer after working as a web editor and reporter for an audio-visual magazine. Since he has been interviewing the electronics show "IFA" held in Berlin, Germany every year, he is particularly familiar with the latest situation related to smart home appliances and IoT in Europe. He has a deep knowledge of audio-visual fields and covers a wide range from high resolution to music distribution, 4K and VOD. Taking advantage of his fluent English and French, he handles many events and interviews with developers from Japan to overseas.