Dolby Atmos Needs You to Pay attention Up. (And Down. And Sidemethods.)

Initially, Apple’s greatest problem was that there was little or no Atmos content material out there. In 2017, R.E.M.’s “Automatic for the People” turned the primary album combined for Atmos, and over the following few years, a number of notable Atmos releases — from Elton John, Queen and the Beatles — showcased the format’s prospects.

To obtain its broader goals, Apple wanted to make Atmos content material each viable and plentiful. It started by partnering with Dolby to encourage recording studios to improve to the format. There are actually some 800 formally acknowledged Dolby Atmos studios in over 40 nations, a 350 p.c improve in simply two years. (Dolby estimates there are two or three times that variety of different studios able to delivering music in Atmos.)

Apple Music additionally drew up want lists of artists, albums and tracks and offered them to document labels, together with funding and deadlines, to assist shortly increase the library of titles out there in Atmos. Over the previous few years, this effort to refit 50 years of pop music has heralded a rush of labor for engineers and mixers, who’ve abruptly discovered themselves doing quantity enterprise within the format.

Wood, initially dismissive of studying to work in Atmos, mentioned he modified his thoughts as soon as he realized the inevitability of its rise. “It was clear that information I’d made have been going to get combined in Atmos,” he mentioned, “and if I didn’t learn to do it, someone else would, and I’d be ceding that management.” Wood’s first Atmos combine was for Liz Phair’s “Soberish,” an album he’d initially produced. “And, additionally, I spotted there can be a superb payday in studying,” he added.

While up to date pop and hip-hop artists have been fast to undertake the format for brand spanking new releases, convincing veteran rock acts to enter the Atmos fray proved extra of a problem. “The first six months, these artists had a whole lot of questions,” Schusser mentioned.

Some teams, just like the Doors, embraced the format, overhauling their whole catalog in Atmos all of sudden; others, like Fleetwood Mac, have proceeded extra cautiously, doing one album at a time. More and extra although, prime legacy artists have been placing out Atmos mixes with growing regularity, with current releases together with landmark albums like Pink Floyd’s‌ ‌“The Dark Side of the Moon‌‌” and ‌the Beach Boys’‌ ‌“Pet Sounds.”