Despite the advent of streaming music services, which have utterly changed the landscape when it comes to accessing music, there haven’t been many changes to how songs are produced. Whether you listen to music through terrestrial FM, digital satellite, MP3, CD, DVD-Audio, or even lossless high-resolution files like FLAC, or DSD, the original recording was probably created in stereo, that familiar, two-channel mix of sound that has been with us for decades.
That may soon be about to change. Dolby says it has created an entirely new recording format for its popular Dolby Atmos 3D-sound format, called Dolby Atmos Music, which goes way beyond two-channel stereo. You may already be aware of Dolby Atmos for movies and TV shows — if not, we have a great explainer and a detailed how-to guide — but Dolby Atmos Music is its own beast. Here’s the lowdown on could might become a big part of recorded music’s next big leap forward.
What is Dolby Atmos Music?
Dolby Atmos Music is music that has been recorded and produced using Dolby’s Atmos audio format. Unlike traditional stereo music that lets producers decide what sounds you hear from a set of left and right channels for a pair of speakers or headphones, Dolby Atmos is a revolutionary surround sound format, with support for up to 34 separate speakers, including speakers that can direct sound down toward the listener from the ceiling.
That sounds like the kind of thing you’d get in a commercial movie theater, and it is — Dolby Atmos is used for creating highly immersive soundtracks for movies, with sound that feels like it’s coming from in front of you, behind you, both sides, and above. But that same recording technique can be used with music for a similar result: Total sonic immersion.
It would be easy to dismiss Dolby Atmos Music as simply a way to play normal tracks over a surround sound setup. After all, every home theater receiver can take an audio source like vinyl, CD, or streaming media, and run it through circuits and software that optimize it for a surround system, like a 7.1 speaker setup. But Atmos Music isn’t a conversion of stereo into multichannel surround — it’s a scratch-made recording that utilizes these extra channels in a whole new way.
One of the defining characteristics of both Dolby Atmos for movies and Dolby Atmos Music is that an object (or in the case of music, an instrument or vocal track) can be manipulated in 3D space by the producer independently. For example, when listening to Atmos Music on an Atmos-compatible sound system, you might hear the violins from the front of the room as a symphony begins, but as the music continues over time, those instruments could be gradually shifted in space to feel as though they are coming from all around you. It’s an unprecedented degree of control for producers, and much like the 3D effect in movies, it might feel jarring or even cheesy if it were executed in a ham-fisted way. But by the same token, it can also feel sublime when the spatial options are manipulated by a deft and experienced hand.
Where can I experience Dolby Atmos Music?
As with its cinematic counterpart, there are two main ways to experience Dolby Atmos Music. Some clubs are beginning to install Dolby Atmos Music systems that give performing DJs the ability to control their music in 3D space around the club. These include Ministry of Sound in London, Sound-Bar in Chicago, and Halcyon in San Francisco.
If you have a Dolby Atmos-compatible home theater system at home, and a source of Dolby Atmos music, you’ll also be able to experience Atmos music from the comfort of your own home.
What do I need to listen to Dolby Atmos Music at home?
Dolby Atmos Music is a scalable music format, which means that a single music track recorded in Dolby Atmos can be played back on a wide variety of devices and speakers configurations, from a massive 32-speaker private cinema to a pair of earbuds on your phone. However, there are big differences between these scenarios.
As a true surround sound format, the only way to get a full, authentic Atmos Music experience is with at least a 5.1.2 speaker configuration, in conjunction with an A/V receiver or soundbar that is Dolby Atmos-compatible. The more surround channels your system can support, the better your Atmos Music will sound. The same is true in reverse: As you move down to a simplified speaker arrangement — say a 5.1, or 3.1 system — as long as your audio device is capable of processing a Dolby Atmos signal, you’ll still hear the music, but its 3D immersion will gradually become less apparent.
Eventually, once you get down to a 2-channel set of stereo speakers, it may be hard to tell the difference between Atmos Music and traditional stereo, because there’s no longer any way for the Atmos system to move the sound around your listening space.
What about Dolby Atmos Music in headphones?
Headphones (with a few notable exceptions like the Razer Tiamat V2) are effectively 2-channel stereo speakers for your head. However, the fact that each ear can only hear one of those channels at a time means that a technique known as binaural audio can be used to simulate 360-degree sound (our brains are remarkably easy to fool). Dolby Atmos takes full advantage of binaural audio and is pretty headphone-friendly. In fact, the format is already widely used throughout the gaming world as a way to give gamers a more immersive audio experience that helps them place characters, as well as actions like explosions and gunshots, in context so they can react faster and with greater accuracy.
The same binaural effect that makes Atmos for headphones so effective for gaming works with music as well, with the same distinctions we discussed earlier around cinematic Atmos versus Atmos for music.
To experience Dolby Atmos Music via headphones, you’ll need an audio device (smartphone, A/V receiver, laptop, etc.) that can run the Dolby Atmos decoder software, a source of Dolby Atmos music, and of course, a pair of headphones. Any headphones will work. But, as with traditional stereo, you’ll get a much better Atmos music experience with a set of high-quality cans versus the cheap earbuds that came with your phone.
Dolby maintains a list of phones that support Atmos and it includes many of the biggest brands. Apple isn’t among them, but this is expected to change with the rollout of iOS 13.
Where and when can I get Dolby Atmos Music?
Right now, Dolby Atmos Music is very hard to come by, though we expect that to change in the near future. Universal Music Group, which includes Capitol Records, has started the process of using Atmos in the creation of new recordings, as well as reaching into its massive back catalog to remaster its classics in Atmos.
For the moment, the only official source of music recorded in Dolby Atmos are Blu-ray discs that contain Atmos Music tracks. The 2017 release of INXS’s Kick 30th anniversary CD and Blu-ray collection is one example. The Blu-ray disc includes many videos created for that album’s tracks, as well as the entire album remastered by Giles Martin in Dolby Atmos. Martin is no stranger to Atmos; he was the driving force behind the 2017 remastering of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in the surround format. Sadly, this version has yet to make it to store shelves as a Blu-ray disc.
Currently, there’s no way to buy, rent, or subscribe to Atmos Music in digital formats online. None of the streaming services in the U.S. currently support it, and even online stores that cater to hi-res music fans do not sell Atmos Music tracks.
Do any music streaming services have Dolby Atmos Music?
Yes, but for the moment these are only available in China. It’s unknown when you’ll be able to stream Dolby Atmos Music in the U.S., but given Apple’s support for the format in iOS 13, we hope an announcement will come in 2019.
