I appreciated it but no need to apologize,
@FooBarFoo. I posted this with the hope that folks with come in with some excellent thoughts such as yours.
Please consider that the Creative Process of
making music in this format is the primary subject of the article. Right now Apple Music via the iPhone on headphones is by far where Atmos (or immersive music, in general) is heard however there is currently no way for music makers to preview the audio in real time. Dolby seems to suggest that mixers to favor the results heard on the DAR over the results heard with Apple. It leads me to believe what Apple is currently doing will change. This is great in the long term but short term they need to better understand and support how 99.9% of music is made.
As I acknowledge above to
@mrcond, it is fair for you all to read it as if I was trying to include
listeners in that 0.1% but that was not the intent; it is 0.1% of
music makers. No slight on them in saying that they are 0.1% either... they've earned it. Looking at the past focusing on 0.1% isn't going to make the format stick. Most of the top mixers/producers/musicians are making music in Atmos because they get paid to do it and/or get additional marketing out of it. Again... they've eared it but when the money and marketing go away, I imagine the effort will too.
You are right that the title is indeed meant to catch people's interest but not blindly. Look at the
global streaming music subscription market. Apple is only 15%. Tidal isn't even listed. Out of that 15% on Apple how many of those folks are listening to Atmos at all, let alone speakered systems? Though these numbers are from Q2 2021, how many more speakered systems were sold vs AirPod headphones after the Atmos+Apple announcement? Even if you have a speakered Atmos system, are how much MUSIC are folks listening there vs headphones? Your point about AppleTV could also be the root problem too; Atmos and Apple Spatial are film-first formats, meaning that the workflow and tech serves films/tv first. Music has to compromise to fit in... and I suppose justifiably since the revenues are so much higher. I'm not mad about this, I just am waving my hand on behalf of a decent group of people asking to be heard. The issues are fixable but the actual problem must be acknowledged first.
Each record I currently make is immersive. Sadly, I can't rely on what I'm hearing via Apple's Spatial Renderer. I'm positive Apple+Dobly will sort it out... though the timing is crucial. Not on purpose, the "industry" didn't move fast enough to support "the rest of us" in the past. Why should a bedroom producer who will blow our minds in 5 years bother with immersive audio if it's such a pain?
The tech is capable, the process just needs to be refined with meaningful support.
Glad you clarified that it was about creating vs consuming. Your article unfortunately covered issues of creation and consumption, as you stated that no one is listening. (Hint- we are, and we like what we hear, and we typically don't use headphones for Atmos or Dolby audio, unless we have the gear to truly pull it off.)
Speaking of refinements... and crucial timing... it might be time to update or do a follow up to your article!
The Logic update just dropped that allows for A/B comparisons between Dolby Atmos and Apple Spatial Audio (Binaural). This should fix some of the differences for sure. I'm hopeful this will allow creators to dial it in as close as possible.
So your primary complaint was just solved via technology, and it hasn't even been out for a year. Looks like the toddler just made the track team. Hopefully Pro Tools will get the same treatment soon, but now there is at least one solution to easily mix for Atmos - binaural or discreet.
Agreed- the numbers you are stating were from July 2021, with the service growing at that time 4-5 million subscribers per month, conservatively.
No one has Apple's actual numbers for subscribers, but the assumption is it's well north of 100 million. That is nothing to scoff at. Which means that even if there are only 1% listening on Atmos with speakers, that's likely over a million listeners. That is a market. Historically, a million SACDS or DVD-A's sold would have been a massive mainstream success!
The difference this time is the cost barriers to entry are much lower. SACD was not a sub $1000 endeavor. Apple TV is. The Atmos system in the living room or den is now a music system as well. That means if it sounds decent, people will listen. Atmos music is just another way to use your investment in Atmos gear, so everyone here absolutely uses it for music! I might argue daily! I feel no compromises in my playback other than I wish the Atmos streaming quality was truly lossless.
A key point I'm making is most of us here at QQ consume Atmos music using multichannel audio using speakers vs spatial processing.
Stating Atmos is somehow a compomise because it started for movies makes little sense. A good mix creates a sense of immersion for movies or music. Some are enhancements to previous multichannel mixes, and some are something new. Sometimes they are good and sometimes they aren't. The same with movies. Atmos mixing is like any other mixing- some mixes are good, some are bad. It's still VERY new to music engineers! Having the differences compared by the engineer should improve mixing for spatial (headphones), but that won't fix someone who doesn't know what they are doing. That said, the more bedroom studios that can deliver content, the more content will be available, the more experience people get mixing, the better the content....
The greater the chance multichannel succeeds this time.
The number of available tracks in Apple Music well exceeds all the dvd-a, sacd, and blu ray music content I own already. Each week we get more. Sometimes it's old OOP quad recordings or new Atmos mixes from new or popular artists. The point is the content is growing at a steady and decent pace. In a few years, we should have most of the multichannel back catalogs available via streaming, along with hundreds of new albums.
All of this is available to everyone at the click of a button. No chasing OOP titles on eBay, scouring estate sales, camping on discogs, etc. It's all there, waiting to be explored. Artists and genres you would not typically buy are available to you at no additional cost, to explore as well.
Unlimited access is why I believe this time is different and why it will succeed. Fixing spatial mixes is just growing pains, which now looks like it has a solution.
