Apple just launched their HiFi (lossless audio streaming tier) for Apple Music. Users will be able to stream songs at higher quality and enjoy in form of Spatial Audio that headphones will perfectly work.

Moreover, Amazon Music extends spatial audio feature on more devices. Their subscribers will now be able to access spatial audio on their headphones through the Amazon Music app for Android and iOS.

HIGHLIGHTS of spatial audio:

  • Amazon Music eligible users will now be able to play spatial audio on all headphones.
  • Amazon announced that it would offer lossless audio as well as spatial audio for subscribers at no extra cost.
  • Amazon Music in India comes bundled with Prime membership and the spatial audio feature is yet to introduced.

Millions of people love listening to audiobooks. If Apple use the same HiFi encryption for audiobooks to sound more enjoyable, that will give them a good market advantage.

Good e-Reader has conducted a survey where people purchase and listen to audiobooks. Audible is the most popular service and most users listen at home and in their cars.

What is most interesting about these figures is that audiobook sites are the most popular audiobook choices like Audible owned by Amazon, Google Play Books, and Apple Books. Also, some people listen either at the gym, while walking, or running.

Henceforward, innovators spent time looking at the concept of audiobooks and making them into full 3D or spatial audio to put the listener in the shoes of main character in a story. The innovation in sound immersed in changing the way we hear, captivating as spatial sound – a truly immersive and 3D experience which puts the listener in an audio environment.

Spatial audio enables listeners to feel like the sound is moving around users and is coming from different directions. This delivers a “multidimensional audio experience, adding space, clarity, and depth that is not achievable with a conventional stereo music. There is also a spatial audio support with dynamic head tracking to provide a three-dimensional (3D) sound experience.

“The entire world is just imagined around the listener, formatted in a binary format (headphone-based) and the experience is breathtaking.”

Listening to audiobook with spatial sound is a remarkably realistic sound experience that levels above surround sound in cinema.

Moreover, a first evaluation is conducted by ResearchGate comparing passive monophonic listening (traditional audiobooks) and a static binaural listening (state-of-the-art audio storytelling). The character of the story speaks to the listener and involves them in the story. The use of binaural audio recordings makes the user an integrated part of the story that gives potential for high immersiveness in virtual reality.

Their evaluation:

  1. Monophonic playback without interactions—common technology in audiobook
  2. Binaural audio stereo playback without interactions—state-of-the-art solutions in audio drama/book
  3. Binaural audio rendering with interactions—proposed solution

Spatial sound is making waves around the world. The recent introduction of Apple and Amazon’s spatial sound integration has attracted users and digital media.

In addition to this, it made an opportunity to be able to collaborate with local schools and institutions to inspire the new generation.