There are two music playback formats vying for public attention right now, Dolby Atmos and Smart speakers. 

Format wars in audio and video have raged for years. However, this battle is not like VHS v Betamax; those video formats were intrinsically the same but technically different. VHS won the format war in the home even though Betamax was technically better. When we look at Atmos and Smart speakers, there's a vast difference in the formats. So much so the comparison is almost silly. 

However, there's something odd going on right now; whilst the professional music and post-production world is talking non-stop about Atmos and the potential it offers, the public is buying smart speakers. Furthermore, smart speakers are primarily mono devices. Yes, they can be grouped together to form stereo and beyond, but in most cases, the consumer uses them in mono.

You might not think that smart speakers offer much of a challenge to Atmos music adoption, but here's a number to consider. Over 150 million smart speakers had been sold by the end of 2020. 

Setting aside the fact that many smart speakers are, in most cases, mono playback devices, it's also worth noting that the listening experience is wildly different depending on your speakers of choice. A Sonos speaker, one of the premium brands, sound far better than a Google Home speaker. There's a reason for that; one is designed to deliver a great listening experience with some smart features, the other provides smart features with a speaker built-in.

Here are three things to consider…

Do The General Public Notice?

You may be one of those people who sit in front of movies or listens to music and points out issues to your partner. 'Did you hear that?' You say, 'the room reverb on that dialogue was so wrong, they were in a phone box, but it sounded like a church.' Or you're listening to a song in the car, and you point out there's too much compression on the guitar, or if you're a cliche, then you say the snare sounds crap.

You might have noticed that your partner didn't bat an eyelid to what you consider a human rights violation. You pointing out the technical failure changes nothing. It doesn't change their appreciation of your technical skills; they just think twice before watching or listening to media with you in the room. For you, inside the bubble of professional audio, it's the end of the world.

Consider this; someone makes a living out of packaging fresh tomatoes, another out of cutting hair, someone else sprays cars. Their antenna is tuned to their world, and if they were to point out poor tomato packaging in the store, a bad haircut or a low quality spray job; you may want them to get a life!

Do the public notice what audio professionals do? Probably not, if voting with their wallets is a measure then no. By the time you read this, smart speaker sales will have probably passed the 200 million mark. Most are average sounding and mono.

Do The General Public Care?

Hearing your track playing in Home Depot or a hotel lobby fills most artists with two feelings, pride and sadness. Pride that they've produced such a great hit that it's been played in all sorts of places. Sadness because of the awful speakers their music is being played through. Don't these people realise the hours of care I took over this mix using some of the best audio gear in the world? They ask.

Imagine being the colourist on a show like Game of Thrones, knowing a large proportion of the populous will be watching it on an iPhone, on the beach in direct sunlight!

That kind of thinking can depress even the most optimistic person. It shouldn't. It can also lead one to think that if our stuff is going to be consumed on sub-standard gear, why bother doing it right in the first place? Shouldn't we just mix on earbuds or edit on iPhones? Not at all. We should use the best gear available but be aware that people may not listen on the same device. This isn't a new issue; it is precisely the reason Horrortones (AuraTones) were created in the first place. What would the mix sound like on the average listening device?

What Price Caring?

Let's assume the general population can hear the difference. Let's also assume the public care. Then we have to ask ourselves how much they are willing to pay for a better experience?

How often have you been offered 4K, HD or SD when renting an online movie only to choose the SD format because it's the cheapest? 

Furthermore, there are many landfill sites stuffed full with unloved domestic surround listening systems, which were popular amongst consumers for about a decade. However, over time partners got tired of 'all the mess of speakers and cables around the room' or people just got tired of watching TV in surround. In many cases, people just stopped caring enough to switch on their 5:1 audio system.

Are Headphones The Future Of Atmos Music?

So far, the most significant single consumer adoption of Dolby Atmos for music has come from Apple. Apple is not a bad partner to have on your side. However, check out the Apple website for advice on listening in Dolby Atmos.  

In most cases, there's no offering of anything close to resembling a 7.1.4 setup. Instead, Apple offers spatial audio on devices like their MacBooks, iPads, iPhones and Home Pods. None of the speakers on these devices could be regarded as high quality. Any mixer worth their salt would weep, thinking their mix will end up being listened to on phone speakers.

Which leaves us with headphones. Headphones are fast becoming the most ubiquitous consumer listening experience. Apple also has a large share of the headphone market with their own AirPods and the Beats headphone brand. If the mention of Beats leaves you cold then it’s another example of pro v consumer electronics taste.

Does this mean that consumer adoption of Dolby Atmos for personal listening is most likely to be adopted via headphones? If this is what the consumer music trajectory looks like, then isn't this something we should be considering? If music mixers invest in large speaker based Atmos solutions only to find most of the content will never be consumed that way, is this a good investment? Post production is a different animal when mixing for Atmos, with many mixing for theatre, so the investment is much easier to justify. Looking at the data is it worth considering how this journey may go and making sure we plot the course more suited to it?

A recurring complaint that continues to rear its head in the media is TV mixes being either too loud or unintelligible. It’s often caused by a disparity between the system the show was mixed on and the one the public consumes it on. Is it not wise and responsible for those working in music to make the same consideration if we want wide spread adoption of Atmos for music?

This article is not a doom-laden 'Atmos is silly, don't waste your money’ polemic. Quite the contrary. We fully support Dolby Atmos as a format, evidenced by the fact that there can be few sites that have supported the format as the Experts has.

Atmos music has a lot of potential to transform the audio world, just like stereo did. But how do we get adoption from the buying public with this listening device disparity taking place?

Discuss…

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