1 week Ago
There’s been a big update to Apple Music, but you may not have heard about it as it was released with zero fanfare in the last few days. It means that you can now play Spatial Audio songs with Dolby Atmos on Windows PCs — something you can’t do with Windows Media Player on Windows 10 or Windows 11. Apple Music brings immersive audio to Windows PCs.
A new Apple support document explains how to play Dolby Atmos in Music on Windows. Of course, this being Apple, when it says Music, it means the Apple Music app. You need to be an Apple Music subscriber, of course, and it means “you can play available tracks in Dolby Atmos, which creates an immersive, three-dimensional ( spatial ) audio experience on stereo headphones and speakers or receivers compatible with Dolby Atmos,” the support document says.
To work, you need the Dolby Access app, which is available in the Microsoft Store, as Windows doesn’t have the Dolby Atmos codec included. It’s free for external speakers, but the codec costs $14.99 if you want to use it through headphones, please note.
This is a cost users don’t face with Apple’s own platforms. Then, open the Music app on the Windows computer, choose the three dots at the top of the sidebar and then choose Settings. Here, you can turn on Dolby Atmos in Playback, choosing an option from the pop-up menu.
It can’t work miracles, of course. You need the track to be capable, which just means looking out for the Dolby icon. You’ll be glad to know that this upgrade is cost-free — it comes with the regular Apple Music subscription.
As Windows Latest points out, “BTW, Windows Media Player still doesn't have any of this stuff,” so this is a clever way to upgrade the audio for your PC, assuming you’re an Apple Music subscriber. It means that Windows users now have access to immersive audio that has been available on some Apple devices since 2021..
