Spatial Audio vs Dolby Atmos: What's the Difference?

“Spatial Audio” and “Dolby Atmos” get used as if they meant the same thing. On an iPhone you see one label, on a soundbar the other, and on Apple Music you often see both on the same album. They are closely related, but they are not the same. I mixed the Michael Jackson catalog in Dolby Atmos with Humberto Gatica at RG Studio, my room in Los Angeles, and most of those mixes are heard by millions of people as “Spatial Audio”. This is the difference, explained from the mixing chair.

Spatial Audio vs Dolby Atmos: the short answer

• Dolby Atmos is a format. It is what the engineer mixes in and what the label delivers: a master that holds every sound with its position in three-dimensional space.
• Spatial Audio is Apple’s name for immersive playback on its devices. On Apple Music, a song labeled Spatial Audio is a Dolby Atmos mix played back through Apple’s renderer.
• “Spatial audio” is also used as a generic term by other brands, and it can describe processing that spreads ordinary stereo around you. That is not a Dolby Atmos mix.

What is Dolby Atmos?

Dolby Atmos is an immersive audio format. Instead of assigning every sound to fixed left and right channels, an Atmos mix combines beds and objects: channel-based layers plus sounds that carry their position as metadata. On playback, the renderer builds the mix for whatever the listener has, from headphones to a soundbar or a full room with speakers in the ceiling.

That is the key idea. I mix once, in a calibrated 7.1.4 room, and the same master plays on AirPods, in a living room or in a car. For music streaming, the Atmos master is delivered as an ADM BWF file, the format Apple Music and other services ask for.

What is Spatial Audio?

Spatial Audio is how Apple presents immersive sound on its devices. In Apple Music it describes music mixed in Dolby Atmos, and Apple’s own Apple Music for Artists guide talks about “Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos”. On top of the mix, Apple adds its own listening features: with compatible AirPods and Beats, the sound can follow the movement of your head, and the rendering can be personalized to the shape of your ears.

Apple devices also offer an option to spatialize ordinary stereo. It makes a two-channel track feel wider on headphones, and some people like it, but nobody mixed anything: it is processing applied on the device to a stereo file. This is where most of the confusion comes from.

Is Spatial Audio the same as Dolby Atmos?

On Apple Music the content is the same: the Dolby Atmos mix that the engineer delivered. What changes is how it becomes the sound in your ears. A Dolby Atmos mix has to be turned into two channels for headphones, and that process, called binaural rendering, can be done by more than one renderer. Apple’s renderer and Dolby’s binaural renderer do not treat the mix in exactly the same way. For example, the binaural render modes set during the mix are used only by the Dolby renderer; Apple’s Logic Pro documentation states that they have no effect when you monitor with one of the Apple Renderer options.

So the honest answer is: Spatial Audio on Apple Music is Dolby Atmos, heard through Apple’s way of rendering it. The same mix on a Dolby Atmos soundbar or on another streaming service goes through a different renderer, which is why it can sound slightly different.

Which sounds better?

The label matters less than the mix. A Dolby Atmos mix built from the original multitracks, by someone who respects the record, can open a song up without changing what made it great. A stereo file spread around you by processing cannot separate what was recorded together, so it mostly adds width and reverb.

With Michael Jackson, our rule was that the first minute had to sound like the record you remember. The details appear when you let the album play. If you want to hear that approach, my guide to Michael Jackson in Dolby Atmos explains which albums are available and how to listen to them properly.

How I mix for both

Because the same Atmos master is heard through different renderers, I never judge a mix in one place. My room has a Genelec 7.1.4 system calibrated with GLM, routed through the Neve Genesys G3D, and that is where the mix is built. Then I check it on headphones, in binaural, in the car and on a living room soundbar. If it translates there, it works as Spatial Audio on an iPhone and as Dolby Atmos on a home theater.

What this means for your release

If you are an artist or a label, the distinction has practical consequences. To appear as Spatial Audio on Apple Music, you need a real Dolby Atmos mix. According to the Apple Music for Artists guide, the Atmos mix must be created from multitracks or from stems made from multitracks, and mixes generated from stereo or upmixed from a stereo release are not accepted. Apple also says that streams of music available in Spatial Audio receive a greater share of royalties, by up to 10%.

My checklist to prepare stems for Dolby Atmos covers what to send, and how much a Dolby Atmos mix costs explains what moves the budget. If you want your record mixed in Dolby Atmos, in person in Los Angeles or remotely, tell me about it through RG Studio.

Frequently asked questions

Is Spatial Audio the same as Dolby Atmos?

Not exactly. Dolby Atmos is the format the music is mixed and delivered in. Spatial Audio is Apple’s name for immersive playback on its devices. On Apple Music, songs labeled Spatial Audio are Dolby Atmos mixes played back through Apple’s renderer.

Is Spatial Audio better than Dolby Atmos?

They are not competitors. On Apple Music, Spatial Audio is the way you hear a Dolby Atmos mix. What makes the difference is the mix itself: an Atmos mix made from the original multitracks sounds very different from ordinary stereo that the device spatializes.

Do I need AirPods to hear Spatial Audio?

No. AirPods and Beats add features such as head tracking, but you can hear Dolby Atmos on Apple Music with other headphones by setting Dolby Atmos to “Always On” in the Music settings. Speakers and soundbars with Dolby Atmos play it too.

Is spatialized stereo a Dolby Atmos mix?

No. Spatialized stereo is processing applied on the device to a normal stereo track. A Dolby Atmos mix is made by an engineer from the separate tracks of the recording, with each sound placed in a three-dimensional space.

Can a song be released in Spatial Audio without a Dolby Atmos mix?

Not on Apple Music. Apple asks for a Dolby Atmos master created from multitracks or stems, delivered as an ADM BWF file. Mixes generated from stereo, or upmixes of a stereo release, are not allowed.