Spatial audio on Amazon Music no longer requires any special equipment. All you need is your phone and existing pair of headphones.

Amazon Music first introduced spatial audio to their music streaming service in 2019. With Dolby Atmos and Sony’s 360 Reality Audio, spatial audio provides listeners with a fully immersive, three-dimensional audio experience with unparalleled space, clarity and depth in the music. Spatial audio was available to all Unlimited subscribers on select smart speakers. Now, Amazon Music spatial audio on iOS and Android will support more speakers and all headphones with no additional equipment required.

Spatial audio supported speakers includes select Alexa Cast speakers, including Echo Studio, as well as 360 Reality Audio on Sony’s SRS-RA5000 and SRS-RA3000 wireless speakers, and their HT-A9, HT-A7000 and HT-A5000 home theatre systems. Later this year, spatial audio on Amazon Music with Dolby Atmos is coming to Sonos Arc and Beam (Gen 2) soundbars.

We’ve always believed that the highest-quality audio possible should be the norm for streaming music, and that’s why today, we’re making spatial audio available to our customers without any special equipment needed, and no upgrade required. We can’t wait for even more fans around the world to be able to hear the vibrancy and nuance of music in spatial audio with just their favorite headphones, and discover new details in the albums they love for the very first time.

Steve Boom, vice president, Amazon Music

Since launching, Amazon’s spatial audio catalogue has grown by more than 20 times. Along with the update, Amazon announced some new artists and albums with spatial audio, including Coldplay, Lil Nas X, Remi Wolf‘s debut album Juno, FINNEAS‘ new album Optimist, Rüfüs Du Sol‘s fourth album Surrender, and Alicia Keys’ full catalogue in 360 Reality Audio, with classic albums such as Songs in A Minor and Girl on Fire. In November, Amazon Music will exclusively release Mercury – Act 1 (Amazon Music Live), the brand-new EP from Image Dragons in Dolby Atmos. The five-track EP includes music from the album’s release live stream, recorded from the rooftop of Amazon Music in Brooklyn.

We recorded our new album Mercury – Act I with Rick Rubin at Shangri-La studios in Malibu, and it’s great to have a new avenue for people to experience the space and depth in those rooms through these new Dolby Atmos mixes. We’re excited to share our first acoustic live EP of some of these tracks that we recorded with Amazon Music.

Imagine Dragons

Over the last year, my engineer Ann Mincieli and I worked passionately to reimagine my catalog in 360 Reality Audio, a process that found us pouring through music we love endlessly! Making these spatial audio mixes revealed unforgettable moments—little details that define a song but tend to hide in the mix. I’m so proud of the results, and I can’t wait for you to fall in love all over again with my music in 360 Reality Audio on Amazon Music.

Alicia Keys

Amazon Music aren’t the only music streaming service to offer spatial audio. Earlier this year, Apple Music introduced spatial audio with Dolby Atmos support at no extra cost. Apple’s USP here is dynamic head tracking with AirPods, AirPods Pro and AirPods Max. A feature hard for others to replicate, as it requires tight integration between Apple’s software and hardware.

The update is now automatically available to all Amazon Music Unlimited Individual, Family and Student subscribers and is turned on by default.

Amazon Music Unlimited is available for $9.99 per month or $7.99 per month to Prime members. This gives users access to 75 million songs on-demand, ad-free and offline, as well as HD and Ultra HD music, podcasts and of course spatial audio. Amazon are currently offering 3-month free trials for new subscribers, for a limited time.

With RouteNote’s music distribution, you can get your own music on Amazon Music, Apple Music and many more, free of charge.