Apple Music is currently promoting a teaser for a special announcement later this week. Various clues suggest that it will be the introduction of a lossless audio streaming option for Apple Music subscribers.
Now the US blog 9to5Mac has further code hints foundthat support the hype. New references to “Lossless” and “Hi Res Lossless” have been discovered in the source code of Apple Music’s web app. The references suggest that songs in Apple Music will soon be available in a higher quality lossless format. This is consistent with findings by 9to5Google in the Apple Music Android app. That is, Apple Music for Android is preparing support for two "lossless" bitrates: 24-bit/48kHz and 24-bit/192kHz.
Will Apple Music Hi-Fi be launched on May 18?
The strings in the Android app suggest that the highest quality lossless stream will use up to 36MB of data for a single 3-minute song. The lossless references also sit alongside mentions of "Dolby Atmos" and "Dolby Audio." It's possible that some songs will be created this way, enabling a 3D soundstage with the Spatial Audio features of the AirPods Pro and AirPods Max. We expect Apple Music to officially announce the new Hi-Fi tier sometime this week. If a previous rumor is to be believed, that could be as early as May 18. (Photo by nikkimeel / Bigstockphoto)
