Oddly, your AirPods will not support new Lossless Audio on Apple Music

When Apple announced on Monday that it would begin upgrading its entire Apple Music streaming library to high-res lossless quality, AirPods Max owners likely took notice. After all, Apple’s most expensive headphones are literally made for the best possible sound quality and the new Apple Music Lossless Audio seems like a perfect pairing.

Except it won’t work. After leaving AirPods off of the Apple Music support page, Apple confirmed it wasn’t an oversight: all AirPods headphones won’t be able to stream in 48kHz Lossless or 192kHz Hi-Res Lossless audio that’s arriving in June. Even if you spring for a Lightning to 3.5mm cable for your $549 AirPods Max headphones and plug it into your Mac, you still don’t get the full lossless experience.

The reasons are due to the limitations of Bluetooth, the Apple Lossless Audio Codec, and analog-to-digital conversion. AirPods stream using the Advanced Audio Coding standard that tops out at 320 kbps. To get it to work, Apple will need to develop its own proprietary codec like Sony’s LDAC that plays music at a higher bitrate over Bluetooth.

Apple announces significant Audio upgrades to Apple Music

Apple today announced Apple Music is bringing industry-leading sound quality to subscribers with the addition of Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos. Spatial Audio gives artists the opportunity to create immersive audio experiences for their fans with true multidimensional sound and clarity. Apple Music subscribers will also be able to listen to more than 75 million songs in Lossless Audio — the way the artists created them in the studio. These new features will be available for Apple Music subscribers starting next month at no additional cost.

Apple is bringing Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos to Apple Music. Dolby Atmos is a revolutionary, immersive audio experience that enables artists to mix music so the sound comes from all around and from above. By default, Apple Music will automatically play Dolby Atmos tracks on all AirPods and Beats headphones with an H1 or W1 chip, as well as the built-in speakers in the latest versions of iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Apple Music will be adding new Dolby Atmos tracks constantly and will be curating a special set of Dolby Atmos playlists to help listeners find the music they love. In addition, albums that are available in Dolby Atmos will have a badge on the detail page for easy discovery.

Apple Music will also make its catalog of more than 75 million songs available in Lossless Audio. Apple uses ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) to preserve every single bit of the original audio file. This means Apple Music subscribers will be able to hear the exact same thing that the artists created in the studio.