I’m an Apple Music fan, but this feels a bit half-baked and me-too:
But hey – free lossless. Can’t complain.
Doesn’t anything hi-res pretty much require an external DAC, though? Doing high-res on my desktop with Roon requires an external DAC, bypassing my Android phone’s OS audio mixer (which isn’t bit-perfect) requires both USB Audio Pro & an external DAC, and doing hi-res on my Wife’s iPhone requires an external DAC…What’s changed?
Oh didn’t know that only a portion of their music will be lossless at the start. That rules out Apple Music for time being.
Hoping this will cause Spotify to make their follow up announcement on price and release date. Would think they want to start before Apple if they could and also offer it for free.
Don’t think Qobuz can lower their price but might cause them to be more aggressive in filling in their missing gaps and then I’d happily stay with Qobuz and roon.
So does Apple Music app or I Guess iTunes for Windows users support exclusive mode?
Yes, but an Apple TV can probably do 24 bit/48 khz right now. What would be disappointing is if an Apple TV would re-rez everything to 48 khz like it does now, versus accurately playing 44.1 content.
Apple is saying the entire library will at least be Redbook by the end of 2021. How much of that will be HiRes remains to be seen but i would imagine that Apple would have the largest access to HiRes anywhere.
I’ve been waiting for this forever. So my new setup I believe is: At home I download my Apple Music library in ALAC files to an external HD. Roon reads and plays that library. And on the go I use Apple Music to play from the cloud.
If this is how it works, I’m stoked and happy. And my Tidal subscription will go away.
Can Roon read locally stored Apple Music files? Won’t it need to be done by Apple App?
Roon can’t read Apple Music streaming favorites, only real local library. Apple Music can’t be used with roon.
But Apple Music will be able to match most of your local library with lossless by year end.
For me the advantage of using one of these streamer players directly is don’t have to switch app when on the go on in the office. Feels like roon gave up on having a mobile solution. So using Spotify as my only player would be a benefit and it’s got Lock Screen controls and can use Spotify Connect without even being on same network.
These new developments can turn the streaming world upside down.
There is danger for Tidal, Deezer and maybe Qobuz. MQA is in trouble as well.
They all have to cut their prices. No good news for their future profitability and maybe neither for artists.
This might benefit consumers in the short run, but I doubt it will do that longer term.
So when does this kick in? Why
“Apple has confirmed to The Verge that lossless audio is exclusive to Apple Music and thus subscription-only. The company won’t offer music purchases in lossless quality, nor will there be any way to upgrade owned tracks to lossless with the paid iTunes Match service.”
Apple announces lossless Apple Music is coming in June at no added cost - The Verge
Apple, Spotify and Amazon are competing with each other for market share and price point. I don’t assume anything about the quality of their various efforts until enough time has passed to evaluate. Amazon officially do high resolution but it’s not reliable, they switch to lower resolutions based on network traffic and don’t control computer interface sample rates. Relax and wait to see what actually plays out.
Agreed I also don’t like how with all of this your limited to use their software to access the services, Spotify, Amazon and Apple are all closed shops that really have no real interest in music or the artists that make it. It’s at all just getting you into their ecosystems or so they can get your data and sell you or sell it on. At least Spotify has thought about hifi with connect but I guess until it’s hifi we can tell how it compares to those with APIs and their own protocols.
I have no intention to change my subscriptions on this news.
I think hardware will adopt.
Amazon; I agree, is crappy atm. I am sure this will change sooner than later.
It is difficult to get people to change to Tidal, Deezer or Qobuz when these other big services move their enormous catalog to lossless or HD at half price.
As someone who uses Roon to incorporate my local library into my Tidal library and has my annual Roon subscription coming up in a few weeks…I should be afraid of this news right?
I’m afraid this is gonna kill Tidal and the other lossless sources Roon uses and destroy my music library. I’m considering moving to Apple Music now. I really love Roon as well, but if the writing is on the wall…
Tidal is has wealthy owners so I doubt it’ll be killed off but given Apple Music supports uploading music it does make Tidal very difficult to justify.
So, I can upload my live bootlegs to Apple Music? That was what really led me to Tidal. Incorporating my local library with what’s in the cloud.
Yup, all the music I own I added it to my iCloud library. I have albums that aren’t available on Apple Music but they show up on all my devices because of that feature.