“What’s with these homies dissin’ my song?”
A few days ago I posted my initial thoughts about Apple’s new Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos experience in Apple Music. Listening to some of the songs on the Rock playlist was transformative to say the least. Notice I say, “some of the songs.” Not all of them produced similar feelings. I’m not the only one noticing this either. Others are writing about the “hit and miss” nature of this new technology. Notably, I found it interesting that one such writer, Chris Welch of The Verge, had a similar reaction/observation regarding one of the songs on that Rock playlist; Buddy Holly, by Weezer. This is an amazing song and when I saw it on the list I decided it would be the first one I tried out. My hopes, like Welch’s, were high. To say I was underwhelmed would be an understatement. However, I did not let that deter me as I went on to explore more songs from the list that literally blew me away.
The bigger point here is, who at Apple thought that this version of Buddy Holly needed to be included on the playlist to, as Welch’s states, “...showcase Atmos.”? Was it Eddie Cue? Was it somebody outside of Apple? Does Rivers Cuomo know this version exists? I don’t know these men but cannot imagine either of them “signing off” on this before it made it to the Music app. It would be interesting to hear from Cue and Apple about who is in charge of curating these lists and more importantly; who is in charge of overseeing the process as a whole? Are there a different groups of people per genre? Or...are the people vetting Classical music arrangements from the likes of Gustavo Dudamel for example, the same people vetting songs like When Doves Cry, by Prince and The Revolution (which, in my opinion, is as close to a spiritual experience via Atmos you will have listening to that Rock playlist with the exception of Silent Lucidity, by Queensryche).
Cue himself hints at the fact that the sound engineering process is not simple. Again, if that is the case, how did something like Buddy Holly make it on to the Rock playlist beside the two songs I’ve referenced here from Prince and Queensryche? This is all new territory we are venturing into as consumers and producers of music. It is my hope that Apple leans into Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos in a way that represents the best experience as it relates what the artists intended for us to hear. Apple needs to be careful, making the “right calls” so as not to damage their own brand by letting things like this version of Buddy Holly pass through. After all, we are consuming the song from a service that Apple provides. They (not Rivers Cuomo and Weezer) are our window into this technology.
