Starting today, Amazon Music is rolling out spatial audio headphone support to iOS and Android devices. The feature enables surround sound on tracks and albums that were mastered in surround sound, and today's news comes months after Apple Music added support for spatial audio on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV.
Amazon Music Unlimited provides access to over 75 million tracks in lossless or hi-res lossless quality. Or as the company brands it as: HD (16-bit, 44.1kHz) and Ultra HD quality (from 24-bit, 44.1kHz up to 24-bit, 192kHz). Before today, the subscription service provided customers with access to spatial audio content, but users needed to own either an Echo device or one of a small number of third-party speakers.
Now, users will be able to enjoy Dolby Atmos or Sony's 360 Reality Audio spatial audio on a wider range of devices, including those running on Android and iOS, and using their existing headphones. Besides iOS and Android devices, there is the option of using Alexa Cast to beam audio to compatible soundbars and speakers for the full spatial audio experience. However, users will need to be subscribed to Amazon Music Unlimited to gain access to spatial audio, and those on the cheaper single device plan are excluded from taking advantage of the spatial audio support.
Amazon's Spatial Audio Expansion
Due to the current level of app support, users will need to connect all external devices to an iPhone, Android device, or any of the previously supported devices in order to play spatial audio content. Amazon is expected to expand support further in the future, and has confirmed that Amazon Music's Dolby Atmos support will arrive for select Sonos soundbars (via the Sonos app) later this year. With the combination of lossless audio, spatial or surround sound audio, and a great pair of headphones, users should expect a great listening experience.
Similar to Apple Music, Amazon Music's spatial audio library varies vastly from track to track and album to album. It all depends on how much work is put in for the Atmos mix versus the standard stereo mix. Hopefully, the availability of spatial audio mixes will continue to get better with time and as more producers, artists, and recording engineers make the transition. In the meantime, Amazon Music users can at least now use their Android and iOS devices to listen with spatial audio enabled.
Source: Amazon