Exploring Dolby Atmos: A Game Changer for Indie Artists in Music Production
- Grant Maloy Smith
- 6 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 13 hours ago
By Jeff Silverman
If you’ve seen an action blockbuster in a modern movie theater, you know that the sound is fantastic. You’re wrapped in a blanket of sound that’s coming from all directions. It’s not just the dialogue and sound effects: the music is breathtaking. And it’s not just that there are many speakers: the reason it sounds so three-dimensional is the audio format.
Once limited to movie theaters, music artists across multiple genres are now embracing this new immersive format, including The Beatles (ABBEY ROAD ANNIVERSARY EDITION), Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Elton John, Billy Eilish, Bing Crosby, and many more.
There are now Dolby Atmos® playlists on Apple Music®, Amazon HD®, and Tidal HiFi®. And it’s across all genres: Jazz, R&B, Country, Hip Hop, Pop, and more. And it’s not just the big stars on record labels – there are Indie releases, too.
Netflix®, Apple TV+, and HBO Max® are just a few services that are now releasing their TV series and movies in Dolby Atmos.
Dolby introduced Atmos cars in 2021; since CES 2024–2025, the number of auto brands embracing the technology has jumped from around 10 to more than 25.
Expect Atmos support to expand into mainstream luxury EVs and more legacy brands. It may soon be possible to retrofit Atmos into older vehicles. Native Atmos streaming via apps like Apple Music is rolling out in newer infotainment and hardware systems.
What Did I Do?
I completely upgraded my control room at Palette Studio, enabling me to provide clients with immersive mixes. After extensive study of the market and the technologies behind it, I chose Dolby Atmos as my object-based 3D immersive audio format.
I’ve spent years doing this. It was an investment in hardware and software, of course, but the results are astonishing. I can create immersive mixes in Dolby Atmos 7.1.4, which means seven ear-level speakers, one subwoofer, and four overhead speakers.
Here’s a mix that I recently produced for Debra Lyn entitled “Devil With The Blue Eyes.”
There are 128 objects. Each object can be assigned to a sound. The green dots represent the location of that specific sound that’s moving around the simulated person. Dolby Atmos mixing is like experiencing music all around you: from top to bottom, sides, front, and back.
It’s as if you’re sitting in an invisible dome, hearing sound envelop you like you’ve never experienced before.
Dolby Atmos object mixes are what I call a “one size fits all,” where a single audio file is created that adjusts automatically according to the listener’s playback system. You can experience an amazing spatial audio mix on headphones, stream with smart speakers, other Dolby Atmos soundbars, or through a home theater surround speaker system. The file contains everything needed to be reproduced on a vast variety of systems.
People have asked me how my mixes are different from standard stereo mixes. I explain that these mixes can be played, streamed, pressed, and/or distributed anywhere a stereo file can.
Currently, Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon Music are accepting and streaming Dolby Atmos media. My spatial mixes receive the Apple Digital Masters badge. They can be released worldwide and played on standard stereo speakers/devices, and can be streamed on any digital distribution platform, including Spotify, YouTube, and Pandora. Having your music mixed in this immersive format ahead of time can not only be a bonus for your audience and fan base, but it can also give you a jump start for licensing music to film and television.
Another bonus is that the Dolby Atmos market is not yet saturated, so your chances of standing out from the crowd are much greater than they have been in many years.
A similar scenario unfolded with the introduction of MP3s in the late 1990s. It took about six years for the MP3 to gain popularity. Ultimately, the MP3 became the precursor to the digital delivery of content we have today. How beneficial could this be for music creators?
It’s no secret that music today has been devalued to the point where it’s almost expected to be available for free streaming, with only fractions of pennies in income or performance royalties paid to the artist and songwriters.
However, the new Dolby Atmos immersive formats offer an entirely new audio experience, regardless of how you listen to it. I firmly believe that this new technology will lead to exciting ways for music lovers to interact with our art. Artists can earn more money from their intellectual properties. That’s a game-changer.
The Dolby Atmos formats bring new and exciting ways for artists at all levels to earn more money from their music. And you don’t have to be located in Nashville, New York, or Los Angeles to participate.
When COVID-19 struck, I redesigned my studio to enable remote work with clients. Despite the end of the pandemic, I am doing more remote work than ever before. I work every day with clients located not just outside of Nashville, but all across the USA and around the world.
I am creating Dolby Atmos mixes nearly every day, across every musical genre. See the album covers below for just some of the Indie artists that I’ve recently mixed in Dolby Atmos.
Right now, we can sell all of our Dolby Atmos digital and physical single and album immersive projects at IAA (immersiveAudioAlbum.com). Prices can average as low as $2.29 for a single and $21.99 and up for an Atmos album, which includes a Dolby Atmos MP4 7.1.4, 5.1 FLAC, and 3D binaural WAV. Those selling prices are putting value back into music again.
Check out my shop on IAA to see just some of what's out there:
If you subscribe to Apple Music, you can listen to available tracks in Dolby Atmos, which creates an immersive, three-dimensional (spatial) audio experience on stereo headphones or built-in speakers.
Apple Music adds Dolby Atmos to macOS
You can now stream Dolby Atmos music from your Apple notebook or desktop computer using Apple Music and the Monterey version of macOS. Here’s how to set it up on your Mac computer. First, run Apple Music and then go into your preferences:
What About Spatial Audio? What is it?
Spatial Audio is Apple’s immersive sound (and music) system. Like Dolby Atmos, Spatial audio is an “immersive” music experience that is meant to create a 3D listening environment. Apple’s AirPod Max and Pro headphones have sensors inside that track your head movements. Let’s say you’re watching a movie with this hardware, and then you turn your head to the right: you will hear the sound louder in your left ear because it’s closer to the screen than your other ear. Apple's Spatial Audio is supported by Apple TV+, Disney+, Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Peacock, Discovery+, and Paramount+, but not by YouTube or Amazon Prime yet.
The primary difference is that with Dolby Atmos, the mixing engineer determines the sound's location by carefully placing sounds within the 3D environment. However, Apple's Spatial Audio does not recognize these assignments (off/near/mid/far). Instead, it creates them according to its programming, utilizing input from the sensors in your AirPod Max or Pro earbuds.
In my opinion, Apple's Spatial Audio is a nice innovation for consuming VR and games, but Dolby Atmos is the way to go for music and theatrical applications.
In a remarkably short time, Dolby Atmos has been adopted by Amazon Music, Apple Music, TIDAL, Hungama (India), VIBE, Melon, and Anghami (Middle East).
Can Dolby Atmos Help You?
The trailer above has been mixed in Dolby Atmos. What you’re hearing is a 2-track (combination of stereo and spatial) re-render from the original Dolby Atmos ADM master file.
In Summary...
Dolby Atmos represents a significant step forward for engineers and producers like me. But it’s even more valuable to recording artists at all levels, and to music lovers everywhere. Spatial immersive mixes add real, tangible value to your recordings, not just in terms of selling them, but also by making them more attractive for film sync use, where they are constantly seeking immersive music content. It elevates your music to a whole new level, making it more marketable to a broader audience of listeners.
Please get in touch with me if you have questions about how Dolby Atmos can help you and your music!
About Jeff Silverman
Jeff Silverman is the founder, owner, and operator of Palette Music Studio Productions (MSP) and Virtual Studio Networks (VSN). He is a veteran producer, engineer, songwriter, accomplished musician, singer, and music/audio editor and composer for film and TV. Jeff is also a former (LA) Motown staff writer with nearly 40 years of experience in the music industry. He has worked on gold and platinum album projects for artists such as Rick Springfield, The Allman Brothers, George Clinton, Prince, and Stephen Bishop, among others.
For more info on Dolby Atmos, please visit Jeff’s website to read more, watch, and listen.
Jeff Silverman/Palette Music • Studio • Productions (MSP)
Certified Apple Digital Masters Mastering House, Approved by Apple, Inc.
Jeff Silverman is a member of the IC’s US • TN • Nashville chapter
This article first appeared in The IC Magazine, issue 2, 2022
It was modified in 2025 for this format and to bring it up to date.
All trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.
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