There are specific requirements to access lossless audio compression in Apple Music. In addition to a supported device, enjoying lossless songs on Apple Music requires built-in speakers, wired headphones, or an external digital-to-analog (DAC) converter.
Lossless audio in the Music app rolled out to Apple Music subscribers on May 17, 2021.
Lossless promises to increase sound quality, provided you can hear the difference. It doesn't work with Bluetooth accessories like your AirPods and you cannot purchase music from Apple in lossless quality.
Follow our steps to configure any supported Apple or Android device for the lossless audio option to start enjoying enhanced audio quality on Apple Music.
How Lossless Audio on Apple Music Works
Lossless audio is a compression technique that preserves every detail of the original recording while reducing file size considerably. By contrast, lossy compression loses a piece of the quality that the average listener can barely hear to make the audio file much smaller.
Apple Music supports lossless audio at no extra cost, which is a nice perk of the service.
Lossless audio on Apple Music uses the proprietary ALAC format, which stands for Apple Lossless Audio Codec. ALAC is Apple's implementation of the Advanced Audio Codec (AAC) that the company has been using as its preferred audio format since the iPod days.
The entire Apple Music catalog is encoded using ALAC. It ranges from CD quality, which is 16 bits at 44.1kHz, all the way up to studio quality (24 bits at 192kHz).
Supported Devices for Apple Music Lossless Audio
ALAC works across these devices, running at least the following software versions:
- iPhone with iOS 14.6+
- iPad with iPadOS 14.6+
- Apple TV with tvOS 14.6+
- Mac with macOS Big Sur 11.4+
- Android phones with the Apple Music app 3.6+
HomePods currently don't support lossless audio, but Apple has confirmed that support for lossless audio is coming in a future HomePod software update.
The ALAC format is only playable on:
- Wired headphones
- Built-in device speakers
- External speakers
To route lossless music to your Hi-Fi equipment, you'll need an adapter that integrates a digital-to-analog converter supporting 24-bit/48kHz lossless audio. Apple's own Lightning to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter does the trick.
How to Manage Lossless Audio Settings on Apple Music
Before appreciating lossless audio, you must manually enable this option in the app's settings, since it's off by default. With it turned on, you'll also need to pick your preferred quality level for when streaming and downloading lossless music. There's no way to see which songs on Apple Music are available in lossless quality before actually playing a track.
When a song is playing in lossless quality, "Lossless" appears on the Now Playing screen.
To get started with lossless music on your iPhone or iPad, open the Settings app and select Music from the list. Now select Audio Quality, then hit Lossless Audio to toggle the feature. You can now choose the lossless audio quality for streaming and downloading audio.
To turn on lossless music in macOS, open the Music app from the Dock (or hit Cmd + Space to search with Spotlight), then pick Preferences from the Music menu. Now click the Playback tab and tick the box next to Lossless audio, below the Audio Quality heading. You can now adjust preferred audio resolutions separately for streaming and offline downloads.
To enable lossless audio on your Apple TV 4K or newer, open the Settings app and choose Apps from the list, then select Music. Now click the Audio Quality option to toggle lossless playback. A word of caution: Hi-Res Lossless is currently unsupported on Apple TV 4K. Also, lossless audio requires that your Apple TV be connected to an AV receiver via an HDMI cable.
To enjoy lossless audio on your Android device, open the Apple Music app and hit the More button, then choose Settings. Now select Audio Quality and touch the Lossless option to turn the feature on or off. Once it's on, you can adjust your lossless audio quality settings.
Why AirPods and Bluetooth Don't Support Lossless Audio
Getting that coveted lossless experience over Bluetooth connections is virtually impossible. This is because the Bluetooth protocol cannot transmit high amounts of data. As a result, none of Apple's wireless headphones support lossless audio in Apple Music.
If you have AirPods or similar Bluetooth headphones, you’ll get regular-quality playback, not lossless. Apple spells it out clearly on its lossless audio in Apple Music page:
"AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, and Beats wireless headphones use Apple AAC Bluetooth Codec to ensure excellent audio quality."
Unfortunately, there's no direct wired option for AirPods Max owners. And no, using Apple's tiny 3.5mm headphone jack adapter won't work either. Despite your AirPods Max featuring a built-in Lightning connector rather than a 3.5mm headphone socket, the port is only compatible with analog sources. Also, it doesn't support digital audio in wired mode.
You won't have any luck with Apple's Lightning to 3.5mm audio cable either, even though it was designed to let AirPods Max connect to analog sources.
On the same page linked above, Apple notes that "AirPods Max can be connected to devices playing Lossless and Hi-Res Lossless recordings with exceptional audio quality." But given the analog to digital conversion in the cable, the playback "will not be completely lossless."
Some re-digitization inevitably occurs when listening to a 24-bit/48kHz lossless track on AirPods Max using Apple's Lightning to 3.5 mm audio cable. That's because lossless audio is first converted to analog before getting re-digitized to 24-bit/48kHz for output.
To get the benefits of lossless audio, you're thus advised to play the music from your device's built-in speakers or external speaker instead.
But Can You Hear the Difference in Lossless Audio?
ALAC-encoded audio preserves every single detail of the original. Interestingly, the support page linked above on Apple's website admits you may not hear the difference. "While the difference between AAC and lossless audio is virtually indistinguishable, we're offering Apple Music subscribers the option to access music in lossless audio compression," it reads.
Of course, what sounds good for some might sound better or worse for others. From the tests that MUO has done, we can see that Apple Music's lossless audio performs really well. For some, lossless audio can elevate your music listening to the next level.
File Size: Lossy vs. Lossless
Lossless audio is primarily designed for audiophiles. Streaming lossless music without any compression artifacts boosts audio quality at the expense of file size, versus standard lossy AAC compression. If you plan on listening to lossless music while offline, be aware that downloading lossless audio uses significantly more space on your device.
According to the company, a three-minute song is approximately:
- High Efficiency: 1.5MB
- High Quality (256 kbps): 6MB
- Lossless (24-bit/48 kHz): 36MB
- Hi-Res Lossless (24-bit/192 kHz): 145MB
Here's how many songs can fit in 10GB of space at different resolutions:
- High Quality: 3,000 songs
- Lossless: 1,000 songs
- Hi-Res Lossless (24-bit/192 kHz): 200 songs
Is Lossless Audio Worth the Effort?
Despite the fact that most people can't tell the difference between the lossy and lossless codecs that Apple uses for digital music, the option is there for those who can. If you're an audiophile who uses a home A/V receiver to enjoy music in pristine quality, you may be tempted to connect your device to Hi-Fi equipment using an external digital-to-analog converter and listen to Apple Music tracks in pristine quality.
But if you're just a regular music lover, you're probably better off without lossless enabled. First, you won't be able to hear the difference in sound quality anyway. Second, streaming lossless audio is a data-heavy activity—you don't want to kill your battery and waste cellular data by using lossless.
If you do feel like hopping on the lossless bandwagon, however, it's a good idea to invest in a decent pair of headphones and a DAC converter in order to get the most from lossless audio on Apple Music.
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