So why is this?

為什麼會這樣？

Well, it's because Apple does quite a few things differently than Spotify. First, they stream songs at a higher bitrate: 256 kilobits per second compared to 160 for free Spotify users.

這是因為蘋果在很多方面都與 Spotify 不同。首先，他們以更高的比特率播放歌曲：每秒 256 千比特，而 Spotify 免費用戶的比特率為 160。

And while paid subscribers do have a 320 kilobit per second option on Spotify, audio quality still won't likely be as good as the 256 standard option on Apple Music. And the reason why has to do with audio compression.

雖然付費用戶可以在 Spotify 上選擇每秒 320 千比特的音頻，但音質仍可能不如 Apple Music 上的 256 標準選項。 原因就在於音頻壓縮。

You see, streaming services want their file sizes to be as small as possible for several reasons.

流媒體服務希望文件尺寸越小越好，原因有幾個。

That way, storing millions of songs takes up less space on their expensive music servers, and when you select a song to play on your device, it takes less time to load and buffer.

這樣，存儲數百萬首歌曲就不會佔用他們昂貴的音樂服務器空間，而當你選擇一首歌在設備上播放時，加載和緩衝所需的時間也更短。

Finally, downloading a song for offline listening takes up less of your storage space.

最後，下載歌曲供離線收聽佔用的存儲空間更少。

So, smaller file sizes benefit everyone, and the way that's done is through audio compression, which can be achieved in a variety of ways, with different methods delivering different levels of quality, file size, and cost. When Apple Music was originally released in 2015, Apple only offered songs compressed in their AAC format, which, while not retaining 100% of the original audio data, did deliver better sound quality than Spotify's AugVorbis format.

是以，更小的文件大小對每個人都有利，而實現這一點的方法就是音頻壓縮，它可以通過多種方式實現，不同的方法可以提供不同級別的音質、文件大小和成本。2015 年 Apple Music 發佈之初，蘋果只提供 AAC 格式的壓縮歌曲，雖然不能 100% 保留原始音頻數據，但音質確實優於 Spotify 的 AugVorbis 格式。

But in 2021, Apple took things even further, by offering lossless audio using their own compression format called ALAC.

但在 2021 年，蘋果更進一步，使用自己的壓縮格式 ALAC 提供無損音頻。

Lossless simply means there's no data lost between the original song file and the compressed file.

無損指的是在原始歌曲文件和壓縮文件之間沒有丟失數據。

This means better sound quality, but also larger file sizes. How much larger?

這意味著音質更好，但文件尺寸也更大。有多大？

Well, a 4-minute AAC song on Apple Music would be about 4 megabytes, while the same song in lossless would be about 20, so about 5 times larger.

那麼，Apple Music 上一首 4 分鐘的 AAC 歌曲約為 4 兆字節，而無損壓縮的同一首歌約為 20 兆字節，所以大約大 5 倍。

Spotify, on the other hand, doesn't offer true lossless audio.

另一方面，Spotify 並不提供真正的無損音頻。

They did announce plans for a new Spotify Hi-Fi streaming tier back in February 2021, which would've delivered lossless songs to users willing to pay a higher monthly subscription, but there have been no signs of it since.

早在 2021 年 2 月，Spotify 就曾宣佈計劃推出新的 Spotify Hi-Fi 流媒體層級，為願意支付更高月訂閱費的用戶提供無損歌曲，但此後一直沒有任何消息。

And after three years, many are wondering if it'll ever arrive. Meanwhile, Apple not only delivered lossless audio on their streaming platform but did it without charging a premium.

三年過去了，許多人都在猜測無損音頻是否會到來。與此同時，蘋果公司不僅在其流媒體平臺上提供了無損音頻，而且沒有收取任何費用。

And they didn't stop there.

他們並沒有就此止步。

Apple also created something called Spatial Audio, which is essentially an upgraded version of surround sound.

蘋果還創造了一種名為 "空間音頻 "的技術，它本質上是環繞聲的升級版。

Where instrumentals or vocals can be placed in 3D space around the listener, creating an audio experience similar to a movie theater.

將樂器或人聲置於聽眾周圍的 3D 空間中，營造出類似電影院的音頻體驗。

This technology is achieved by basically taking a 5.1 or 7.1 Dolby Atmos signal containing multiple channels, then applying various audio filters and equalizers to make it sound like the audio is coming from all around you.

這項技術基本上是通過獲取包含多個聲道的 5.1 或 7.1 杜比全景聲信號，然後應用各種音頻濾波器和均衡器，使其聽起來就像音頻來自您的周圍。

Again, this is technology Spotify doesn't offer. But Apple didn't stop there.

同樣，這也是 Spotify 所不具備的技術。但蘋果並未止步於此。

Because AirPods have sensors like accelerometers and gyroscopes, Apple can track your head movement and adjust the placement of these audio channels as you move your head around.

由於 AirPods 具有加速計和陀螺儀等傳感器，蘋果可以跟蹤你的頭部運動，並隨著你頭部的移動調整這些音頻通道的位置。

This gives the illusion that the audio is coming from a fixed point in space, as if you really are in a wide-open movie theater, rather than wearing headphones that are stuck to your head. So all of these things, AAC encoding, lossless audio, spatial audio, and head tracking, make Apple Music sound way better than Spotify or any other music streaming service.

這就給人一種錯覺，彷彿音頻來自空間中的一個固定點，就像你真的在一個寬敞的電影院裡，而不是戴著耳機貼在頭上。是以，AAC 編碼、無損音頻、空間音頻和頭部追蹤等所有這些功能，讓 Apple Music 的音質遠勝於 Spotify 或其他任何音樂流媒體服務。

This is Greg with Apple Explained.

我是格雷格與《蘋果解說》。

Thanks for watching till the end, and I'll see you in the next video.

感謝您觀看到最後，我們下期視頻再見。