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 found, which underpin the hype. New references to "Lossless" and "Hi Res Lossless" have been discovered in the source code of Apple Music's web app. These references indicate 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. This means that Apple Music for Android is preparing to support 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 indicate that the highest-quality lossless stream consumes up to 36 MB of data for a single 3-minute song. The lossless references also appear 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 level sometime this week. If a previous rumor is to be believed, this could be as early as May 18. (Photo by nikkimeel / Bigstockphoto)
