Apple Music Beta for Android Confirms Lossless Audio Streaming in the Works

Following a report that Apple could announce a brand new HiFi Apple Music tier as soon as Tuesday, May 18, new warnings within the music streaming services app on Android have confirmed that lossless audio is in the works.

apple music album cover art
As reported by 9to5Google, the ‌Apple Music‌ beta for Android has multiple warnings within the app that inform users that streaming audio at lossless, another term often used for high-fidelity streaming, will consume more data and bandwidth.

Lossless audio files preserve every detail of the original file. Turning this on will consume significantly more data.

Lossless audio files will use significantly more space on your device. 10 GB of space could store approximately: – 3000 songs at high quality – 1000 songs with lossless – 200 songs with hi-res lossless

Lossless streaming will consume significantly more data. A 3-minute song will be approximately: – 1.5 MB with high efficiency- 6 MB with high quality at 256 kbps- 36 MB with lossless at 24-bit/48 kHz- 145 MB with hi-res lossless at 24-bit/192 kHzSupport varies and depends on song availability, network conditions, and connected speaker or headphone capability.

Suggestion of a lossless audio tier for ‌Apple Music‌ first sparked earlier this month with a report from Hits Daily Double. The report stated a launch is imminent and that the new tier will cost the same $9.99 as the current individual ‌Apple Music‌ package; however, how Apple will allow existing customers to upgrade to HiFi remains unknown.

Apple is currently testing iOS and iPadOS 14.6 with developers, which compared to iOS 14.5 released in April, the upcoming update seems more subdued with new features and changes. Code within the update, although, has indicated that users will have the option to switch between different streaming qualities and that ‌Apple Music‌ may be able to dynamically switch between lossless and standard audio depending on factors such as signal strength, battery life, and data consumption.

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Top Rated Comments

Zadigre Avatar
57 months ago
I hope this will be a free upgrade for those paying for Apple One subscription.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tkermit Avatar
57 months ago
Nice to see we'll finally be reaching CD quality again, 40 years after its introduction. ;)
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GermanSuplex Avatar
57 months ago
256kbps AAC is good enough for me. There's nothing wrong with having the best, but I can't really tell the difference between lossless and 128kbps mp3. I reckon for every 100 people who will swear by lossless, there's probably 1 or 2 who can actually tell the difference.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
xxray Avatar
57 months ago
Not gonna lie, as a Spotify user, this is appealing. And the fact that such a high-profile streaming service is taking it seriously and adding it as a feature is huge. It used to be that you could only get music this high-quality if you bought an album online from specific websites at 2-3x the cost of a normal album.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sorgo † Avatar
57 months ago
I knew I went with that 1TB iPad Pro for a reason. :D
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rumz Avatar
57 months ago

Oof. Not sure why I didn't consider the impact of data usage with lossless. I listen to music most in the car.
They need more ways to hype 5G ?

I have wanted a lossless option for years— I had given up on Apple ever introducing it. I’m not too worried about bandwidth as I’m pretty intentional about what I listen to and prefer to have music saved for offline so that I’m not at the mercy of a cellular provider.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)