Nile Rodgers has been named Apple Music’s first artist in residence to focus specifically on spatial audio, the streaming service announced today (June 12). The partnership will involve a number of live spatial audio listening sessions and educational events in the coming months in Los Angeles, New York City and London, as well as a new short video, with a trailer out today, in which the iconic producer, songwriter and artist showcases how he has remastered his work in Dolby Atmos audio, as well as the possibilities the technology can unlock.
Apple Music released spatial audio and lossless streaming in June 2021, and has been steadily adding to its catalog of albums remastered for spatial in the two years since. That June, Apple’s senior vp of services Eddy Cue told Billboard that he believed spatial audio was the future, saying, “I think it’s going to do for music what HD did for television.” These days, the immersive audio tech is incorporated into much of what Apple releases, and this partnership with Rodgers is about continuing to evangelize for the technology, both with new releases and catalog remasters but also with listeners.
“What Apple is doing with spatial audio, is the gateway to the future,” Rodgers said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “Streaming, and the portability that comes with it, has completely changed the way we consume music and today everything we do is accompanied by a soundtrack of our favorite songs. That came with a sacrifice to audio quality, but now with spatial audio you can have the convenience you want while getting a completely immersive audio experience.
“When I first put up my master tapes and listened back in spatial I started to lament the fact that I didn’t have it back then,” Rodgers continued. “Like The Beatles in mono, our creativity was limited by the technology of the time. The fact that I could have done more artistically would’ve been incredible to me and now thanks to spatial audio I can. This is a real gift for music lovers.”
Rodgers’ new role with Apple expands his partnership with the company, which already includes his Deep Hidden Meaning show on Apple Music Radio, where he tells the stories behind the songs that he’s worked on over his extensive career, and speaks to other songwriters about the meaning behind their works as well.
