Amazon has introduced that, starting at this time, Amazon Music Limitless subscribers will have the ability to take heed to spatial audio music tracks with their favourite headphones with the Amazon Music app for Android and iOS. The corporate is supporting two codecs of spatial audio: Dolby Atmos (which can be supplied by Apple Music) and Sony’s 360 Actuality Audio.
The Atmos mixes are supplied by file labels, so the “immersive, multidimensional audio expertise” needs to be largely related between Amazon and Apple’s companies — except for head monitoring, which Amazon doesn’t assist. Apple’s new third-gen AirPods, AirPods Professional, and AirPods Max all have the choice for dynamic head monitoring, which supplies a singular sound expertise as you progress your head in varied instructions.
Amazon has supplied spatial audio since 2019, but it surely was restricted to a brief record of gadgets together with the Echo Studio and Sony’s SRS-RA5000. Now it’ll work with no matter pair of headphones you’ve bought. You’ll see an Atmos or 360 badge within the Amazon Music app when taking part in spatial audio tracks. Like Apple, Tidal, and others which have gone in on the expertise, Amazon claims spatial audio delivers a “multidimensional audio expertise, including house, readability, and depth that isn’t achievable with conventional stereo music.”
However as I discovered when sampling Apple Music’s initial batch of spatial audio tracks, high quality can fluctuate wildly and producers / artists have to put some work into Atmos mixes for them to sound their finest.
Additionally beginning at this time, Amazon Music subscribers will get entry to lossless HD and hi-res Extremely HD audio tracks with out having to improve their account to take action. Amazon dropped the additional premium it had been charging for lossless on the identical day that Apple started streaming the high-quality recordsdata, however you continue to technically had so as to add the function to your account. Now it’ll simply be a daily a part of the service for all Amazon Music Limitless subscribers. Amazon says it has over 75 million songs accessible within the CD-quality HD tier and “thousands and thousands” in Extremely HD.
Amazon Music Limitless is priced at $9.99 monthly (or $7.99 for Prime subscribers). The cheaper single device plan doesn’t permit for HD, Extremely HD, or spatial audio playback.