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Apple vice president Oliver Schusser, who leads Apple Music, was recently interviewed by Billboard<\/a> and had some interesting things to share about Apple Music, lossless audio, and more.<\/p>\n Apple Music VP admits most people can\u2019t hear difference in lossless audio<\/p>\n Yesterday Billboard published a new interview<\/a> with Apple Music head Oliver Schusser and Billboard\u2019s Kristin Robinson.<\/p>\n Schusser talked about the origins of Spatial Audio and where it differs from lossless audio.<\/p>\n If you look at audio, changing audio standards are hard. And if you look back over like 60 years, there\u2019s only really been mono [and then eventually stereo]. [At Apple Music] we wanted to create a new standard with two distinctive criteria. One: we thought it\u2019s important that people \u2014 general people, fans \u2014 can notice the difference. And number two: we wanted it to work on as many, if not all, devices. Not just Apple devices, but just in general.<\/p>\n Apple Music also supports lossless audio<\/a>, but it\u2019s always taken second billing to Spatial Audio. It\u2019s pretty clear, based on the interview, why that\u2019s the case.<\/p>\n Kristin Robinson: I do agree that most average people can\u2019t really hear the difference with lossless.\u00a0<\/p>\n Oliver Schusser: Correct. My second point is: honestly, if we did an anonymous [blind] test on just an iPhone with headphones \u2014 and you and I work in the industry, and I assume you like sound as much as I do \u2014 I can tell you most fans wouldn\u2019t be able to tell the difference. But that\u2019s what we did with spatial audio.<\/p>\n Schusser clearly isn\u2019t saying that no one can tell the difference with lossless audio. But he does confirm the general consensus that for the vast majority of people, lossless makes no difference.<\/p>\n Other topics covered in the interview include:<\/p>\n Apple Music subscriber churn: \u201cWe\u2019ve got the lowest churn in the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n AI-generated music on Apple Music: \u201cAI music on Apple Music is really tiny. I\u2019m rounding but it\u2019s below 0.5% of usage.\u201d<\/p>\n Free tiers: \u201cit\u2019s the cheapest marketing mechanism in the world, where the labels have given everyone the right to basically do free marketing \u2014 like, take all our content and use it for marketing and then upsell.\u201d<\/p>\n You can read the full interview here<\/a> on Billboard. It\u2019s also here on Apple News+<\/a>.<\/p>\n What\u2019s your experience like with Spatial Audio and lossless on Apple Music? Let us know in the comments.<\/p>\n Apple Music is available for $10.99\/month<\/a>, or you can get it as part of the Apple One bundle<\/a>.<\/p>\n Best iPhone accessories<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/apple-music-free-logo.jpg\"){kind=logo}
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