Apple Music could soon get a HiFi music streaming tier that will include support for Dolby Atmos, Dolby Audio, and ‘lossless’ audio, according to a new report. The report says that the new update to Apple Music will debut with iOS 14.6, which is currently under beta testing. A separate report claims that Apple Music HiFi support will be announced in the “coming weeks”, along with the third-generation AirPods. It is also being speculated that the new announcements could take place at WWDC 2021, which is scheduled for June.
A report by 9to5Mac claims that Apple is working on introducing a HiFi plan for Apple Music that could be introduced to subscribers with the release of iOS 14.6. The publication says that it has found a new code added to the Apple Music app in the first build of iOS 14.6 that specifically mentions “Dolby Atmos,” “Dolby Audio,” and “Lossless”. Up until now, Apple didn’t feature support for Dolby but only supported its internal HiFi audio codec ALAC.
HiFi files have less audio compression and thereby are capable of a better sound quality output. Spotify recently announced that it is also venturing into high-quality audio streaming with Spotify HiFi. It is speculated that Spotify will price the Spotify HiFi plan higher than its existing subscriptions.
