The best audio quality on Apple Music is available for free. So, find How to Listen to Lossless Audio on Apple Music.
Apple Music allows you to listen to some songs and albums with lossless sound quality. As the name suggests, they are very high-quality audio files. And because you don’t have to pay more for this feature (it’s included in the $9.99 monthly plan), if you have the right audio equipment, it’s effortless to try it if you have the right audio equipment. We will guide you through everything you need to know.
What is lossless audio?
Most of the songs you listen to may be loaded in popular audio formats, such as .mp3 or .aac. These audio formats are very good at maintaining acceptable levels of audio quality while maintaining relatively small file sizes. The goal here is to allow you to copy a large number of songs to your device, or to allow you to stream without worrying about reaching internet data limits.
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For this reason, audio formats such as .mp3 compress audio files and lose some of the data available in the original recording. Lossless audio formats, such as .flac or .alac, can avoid this compression and preserve all the data in the original recording. This means you can listen to the highest quality music, or the version the artist wants you to hear.
If you want to listen to lossless audio, please remember that the file is much larger than a normal audio file, so there is a risk of insufficient storage space or reaching the Internet data limit earlier.
For lossless audio in Apple Music, the company uses Apple Lossless Audio Codec (.alac). If you are looking for technical specifications, the encoding resolution of these files ranges from 16 bit/44.1 kHz (essentially CD quality) to 24 bit/192 kHz.
How to enable lossless audio in Apple Music
According to Apple, lossless audio is supported on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV 4K, and Android. To use it, you need to:
- Update your iPhone or iPad to iOS 14.6 (or iPadOS 14.6) or later versions.
- Go and Update your Mac to macOS 11.4 or newer versions.
- Update your Apple TV 4K to tvOS 14.6 or more recent versions.
- Update the Apple Music app on Android to the latest version.
With the updates done, let’s quickly look at how to enable lossless audio in Apple Music on your device. On iPhone and iPad, go to Settings > Music > Audio Quality, and enable Lossless. You can choose between Lossless (24-bit/48kHz) or High-Res Lossless (24-bit/192kHz).
In macOS, lossless audio can be enabled through the Music app. In the top bar, go to Music > Preferences, and select the Playback tab. Then, you can select Lossless audio under Audio Quality.
On your Apple TV 4K, go to Settings > Apps > Music > Audio Quality, and enable Lossless.
If you have an Android phone, open the Apple Music app and tap the three-dots icon (also known as the More button). Now go to Settings > Audio Quality, and enable Lossless.
Do I need to buy new headphones to listen to lossless songs?
To listen to lossless songs, you need suitable audio equipment. If you have Bluetooth headsets (including various AirPods), lossless audio is not supported. Even the super expensive AirPods Max does not support completely lossless audio, even if you use a Lightning to 3.5mm audio cable.
Instead, you need to use a good pair of wired headphones or connect your device to powered speakers. Apple’s Lightning to 3.5 mm headphone adapter supports lossless audio, so you can use it to connect your favorite pair of headphones or wired speakers to enjoy lossless music.
If you use wired CarPlay, you can also listen to lossless music on Apple Music. Of course, unless you have a good set of car speakers, the difference may not be obvious.
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