After no shortage of rumors, Apple has finally announced that it is bringing lossless music and spatial audio to Apple Music. The company teased that "music would change," and now it has shifted the game by bringing audio the way it was meant to be heard to its streaming service.

Not only did Apple announce spatial and lossless audio, but the company also upped the ante by offering the enhanced audio quality at no additional charge. We assumed there would be a new, more expensive Apple Music tier that included lossless audio, but Apple decided to offer it to all subscribers for free.

Apple Music's New Lossless and Spatial Sound

Apple uses a codec called ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), which it says preserves "every single bit of the original audio file." Basically, it'll let Apple Music subscribers hear the music as close to the original recording as possible.

In total, there are 75 million songs currently available on the Apple Music streaming service with lossless audio. You might find that listening to music with lossless audio reveals details about songs you've heard over and over you never knew were there.

In addition to lossless audio, Apple announced that it is bringing Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos to its service. Dolby Atmos allows artists to mix music so the audio comes from all around the listener, creating a more interactive and stimulating music experience.

Apple Music Spatial audio

Unlike lossless audio, this won't be available for every song on Apple Music, as the artists would need to record the music with spatial audio initially. Apple says that it will be adding new Dolby Atmos tracks constantly, so there should be new stuff to listen to regularly.

As far as what devices you'll be able to hear spatial audio on, Apple says that Dolby Atmos tracks will play on all AirPods and Beats headphones with an H1 or W1 chip. Additionally, built-in speakers in the latest versions of iPhone, iPad, and Mac will play Dolby Atmos tracks.

"Apple Music is making its biggest advancement ever in sound quality," said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and Beats. "Listening to a song in Dolby Atmos is like magic."

For the launch in June, Apple Music users can listen to thousands of songs in Spatial Audio.

"Today marks the introduction of Dolby Atmos on Apple Music — a new music experience that is transforming how music is created by artists and enjoyed by their fans," said Kevin Yeaman, Dolby Laboratories' president, and CEO. "We are working with Apple Music to make Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos widely available to all musicians and anyone who loves music."

When Can You Enjoy These New Features?

According to news announced by Apple, all of these new features are coming in June with the launch of iOS 14.6, so you won't have to wait too long to try out the next generation of audio.