We have learned that AvidPlay customers can now distribute Dolby Atmos Music to Apple Music and TIDAL HiFi and Amazon HD. This is great news for DIY music publishers as it opens up a huge market for Dolby Atmos content.
What Is AvidPlay?
Avid’s music distribution service, AvidPlay, was the first DIY publishing platform to enable you to distribute your music in Dolby Atmos to compatible streaming services such as Amazon Music HD and TIDAL HiFi and now Apple Music.
With Avid Pro Tools and AvidPlay, Avid is now delivering a complete end-to-end solution for creating, recording, editing, mixing and distributing music in Dolby Atmos. Avid realised that part of the market that would really benefit from this end-to-end provision is the independent artists and record labels sector. Rob D’Amico, Director of Product Marketing, Audio Solutions at Avid told us…
“We have done extra work in this release to turn on capabilities for independent labels to use AvidPlay as a way to distribute for their artists, bands and other producers as well.
During our beta testing, it transpired that a lot of engineers now see AvidPlay as an opportunity to grow their business and offer people they mix for, a way to get their music heard because a lot of the artists they mix for are not tech-savvy.
This is a very easy service, enabling engineers to purchase an AvidPlay plan for that artist and then distribute all the music they mix for them.
I’m very excited to announce AvidPlay customers will soon be able to distribute Dolby Atmos Music to Apple Music in early July!
Since last August independent artists, bands and labels have released 800+ Dolby Atmos tracks to TIDAL & Amazon Music and we are happy to support more streaming services in the future.
AvidPlay Unlimited Plan For Dolby Atmos - Now Includes Apple Music
Avid has a special plan on AvidPlay specifically for artists that want to release their music on Dolby Atmos.
This is an unlimited singles and albums plan for one artist for Dolby Atmos and/or stereo tracks and costs $49.99 per year.
As with any AvidPlay plan, unlike some music distribution services, you keep 100% of your rights and earnings, all you need to do is pay for the most appropriate Avid Play plan.
Arno Kammermeier, co-founder of the Berlin-based electronic duo Booka Shade told us…
“Dolby Atmos has changed how we think about music and it allows us to create things that were previously not possible. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever heard and most importantly, with AvidPlay, we can now share this elevated experience with our fans. It’s mind-blowing and the ultimate way to experience our music.”
For independent labels, AvidPlay opens up opportunities to support artists interested in creating new music or reimagining existing stereo tracks in Dolby Atmos. With creative tools already available, like Avid Pro Tools Ultimate and the Dolby Atmos Production Suite, you can quickly get up and running so that they can start creating and sharing music in Dolby Atmos with fans.
Leah Chisholm, producer, pianist, and DJ known as LP Giobbi and co-owner of the record label Animal Talk Collective, which she co-founded with SOFI TUKKER explains…
“Dolby Atmos has changed my life. As a producer, I am often told I need to take things out of my mixes and there is just not enough space for all the sounds and ideas to come through. When I got introduced to Dolby Atmos, I was finally able to create the music I always heard in my head. AvidPlay has allowed me to bring my music to the world as an artist and label owner. I am very grateful to have the opportunity to release my music, and the music I believe in, in an immersive and heightened experience.”
Mike’s First Look And Listen To Spatial Audio And Dolby Atmos On Apple Music
For me, listening to these tracks, and others, the stereo mixes come across as one-dimensional, like a picture on a piece of paper. The Dolby Atmos mixes are like taking that flat image and opening it out like can happen with those 3D greetings cards, the 2D picture opens out and there is space between the parts, is a 3D picture in sound.
That said, I got very little sense of sound coming from behind me, that you get when listening to Dolby Atmos on a 7.1.4 speaker system, so Apple’s term of ‘Spatial Audio’ is much more appropriate when listening to Dolby Atmos through Apple’s binaural renderer.
For me, the takeaway from this is that finally, we have a delivery system where the mixes that have been optimised for headphones, which is a medium, that whether we like it or not, is being used more and more to listen to music.
If you want to learn more then read our article Apple Spatial Audio - Is It All Hype?
Apple Spatial Audio - Who Will Benefit?
Since Apple has rolled out their “Spatial Audio supported by Dolby Atmos” feature in a new version of iOS and on their Apple Music platform, on various professional forums, it’s fair to say that some very smart audio engineers are well into the process of figuring out - well, everything. In this article, Reid Caulfield, takes a look at what we think we know so far, how this affects audio professionals and asks who needs or wants, Immersive Sound for anything?
If you want to learn more then read our article Apple Spatial Audio - Who Will Benefit?
How Does AvidPlay Compare With Other Music Distribution Services Like CD Baby, DistroKid And More? We Investigate
Avid released AvidPlay in July 2019 and updated it in January 2020. But how good is AvidPlay? They are entering an already busy market with plenty of options and so far there is no information out there to show whether what Avid is offering is good or not. So we decided to take to investigate. In this article, written in February 2020, we shared our exclusive research and show how AvidPlay compares with other digital music distribution services like Awal, CD Baby, DistroKid, Ditto, Landr, RouteNote, Spinnup and Tunecore.
If you would like to learn more and see how AvidPlay compares with other DIY music publishing platforms then read our article How Does AvidPlay Compare With Other Music Distribution Services Like CD Baby, DistroKid And More? We Investigate.