Clubhouse Adds Music Mode, A New Audio Setting For Musicians And Creators

Clubhouse has introduced Music Mode on its app, which will first roll out to iOS devices and later on Android soon after. While its name sounds like an entirely new mode, the addition is actually a new audio setting that is tailored specially for musicians and creators who use the platform to broadcast their music. 

According to Clubhouse’s recent blog entry, activating Music Mode will optimise the platform’s audio streaming capability to deliver “high quality and great stereo sound.” In addition, enabling it will also allow musicians and creators to hook up professional equipment such as a USB microphone or a mixing board to be used during their broadcasts. 

To enable the mode, simply tap on the three dots at the top right corner, select Audio Quality, and then choose Music from the list. Keep in mind that this Mode is only for broadcasters, and regular users and audiences are not required to tweak their settings in order to enjoy the “high quality” music streaming.

In fact, Clubhouse had added a much appreciated audio enhancement feature for all users earlier this month. As we’ve reported prior to this, the platform previously introduced spatial audio support to its app, adding a sense of depth to its overall sound delivery – which is great for chat rooms, presentations, and also live music performances.

Being the pioneer of audio-only broadcasting, Clubhouse continues to face steep competition from its rivals such as Twitter, Facebook and even Spotify. All of which had only recently jumped into the scene after realising the fledgling platform’s ever growing success. Ever since, Clubhouse has vigorously been introducing improvements and new features to its app in order to be a step ahead of its numerous competitors.

You Need Wired Headphones To Listen To Lossless Audio On Apple Music

Last night, Apple had announced that the Lossless Audio option will be rolled out to Apple Music alongside Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos next month. These new features will be provided at no extra cost to subscribers but if you are already looking forward to listening to your favourite song with the new hi-fidelity setting through the service, then you also may have to invest in new headphones.

This is because you need a wired headphone in order to do that. In the age where wireless headphones and true wireless earbuds including Apple’s own AirPods series have become so popular among consumers, this limitation may seem rather irritating.

However, the reason behind this limitation is fairly rudimentary. CD-quality audio has a bitrate of 1411kbps and while Bluetooth has a transmission ceiling rate of around 2000kbps, the actual transmission speed that users are able to get in real life is far lower due to interferences as well as distance between devices.

There are indeed some hi-res audio codecs out there that have been optimised for Bluetooth transmissions such as Qualcomm aptX HD and Sony LDAC but even then, their bitrate is still nowhere close to CD-quality audio. As a comparison, aptX HD goes up to 576kbps while LDAC maxed out at 990kbps.

On another hand, Apple has yet to come out with such codecs itself. Furthermore, Apple Music’s Lossless Audio files will be encoded in Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) which is not supported even by the company’s highest-end wireless headphones, the AirPods Max.

Even though AirPods Max can be used as a wired headphone, it will still not be able to support Apple Music’s new Lossless Audio option. In terms of codecs, the headphone, as well as AirPods Pro, are limited to AAC, in addition to SBC which comes as a standard on any Bluetooth audio device.

Of course, we have also mentioned last night that users who want to push the playback quality even further via the Hi-Res Lossless Audio option need to use external devices such as a USB digital-to-analogue converter in order to make that happen.

As for the Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, it turns out you can listen to Atmos tracks with any given headphones. Just choose the Always On option in the Apple Music’s Settings and you will be good to go.

Facebook Announces Clubhouse Clone Live Audio Rooms, Set To Launch Mid-Year

Facebook announced a new feature called Live Audio Rooms that mimics much of what popular audio-based app Clubhouse does. It is expected to launch by summer – that’s mid-2021 for the rest of us who don’t live in the Northern Hemisphere.

Rumours have swirled around the development of Facebook’s Clubhouse clone. Facebook has already been beta testing Hotline, a Q&A-based app that’s quite similar to Clubhouse, but Live Audio Rooms seems to be a separate feature that’s fully integrated within the existing Facebook ecosystem.

Before launch, Facebook said it intends to test Live Audio Rooms in Groups, making it available globally for Group users and their communities. Public figures will also have access to the feature, allowing them to host conversations with other public figures, experts, and fans.

Live Audio Rooms will also be available on Messenger at launch – which comports with rumours last month that the social media giant was working to build a broadcasting feature into Messenger. Unlike Clubhouse though, content creators have the options of turning a live conversation into a podcast for later listening, and sharing audio excerpts from a session in the form of Soundbites (also a new feature). In contrast, Clubhouse’s philosophy emphasises privacy and the app generally doesn’t allow recordings – an attribute that made it initially popular in China before it was banned there.

Facebook is taking a different route probably based on commercial considerations – it wants to make things easier for creators, attracting a large pool of them. While unveiling Live Audio Rooms, the social media giant also pointed to creator monetisation opportunities through its Star feature, and announced an upcoming ability to charge access to a Live Audio Room through a single purchase or a subscription.

Earlier this month, Clubhouse itself announced its first monetisation feature called “Payments”, which enables direct payments to creators.

Facebook Announces Clubhouse Clone Live Audio Rooms, Set To Launch Mid-Year

Facebook announced a new feature called Live Audio Rooms that mimics much of what popular audio-based app Clubhouse does. It is expected to launch by summer – that’s mid-2021 for the rest of us who don’t live in the Northern Hemisphere.

Rumours have swirled around the development of Facebook’s Clubhouse clone. Facebook has already been beta testing Hotline, a Q&A-based app that’s quite similar to Clubhouse, but Live Audio Rooms seems to be a separate feature that’s fully integrated within the existing Facebook ecosystem.

Before launch, Facebook said it intends to test Live Audio Rooms in Groups, making it available globally for Group users and their communities. Public figures will also have access to the feature, allowing them to host conversations with other public figures, experts, and fans.

Live Audio Rooms will also be available on Messenger at launch – which comports with rumours last month that the social media giant was working to build a broadcasting feature into Messenger. Unlike Clubhouse though, content creators have the options of turning a live conversation into a podcast for later listening, and sharing audio excerpts from a session in the form of Soundbites (also a new feature). In contrast, Clubhouse’s philosophy emphasises privacy and the app generally doesn’t allow recordings – an attribute that made it initially popular in China before it was banned there.

Facebook is taking a different route probably based on commercial considerations – it wants to make things easier for creators, attracting a large pool of them. While unveiling Live Audio Rooms, the social media giant also pointed to creator monetisation opportunities through its Star feature, and announced an upcoming ability to charge access to a Live Audio Room through a single purchase or a subscription.

Earlier this month, Clubhouse itself announced its first monetisation feature called “Payments”, which enables direct payments to creators.

Google Acquires 3D Audio Tech Startup Dysonics

Google has acquired Dysonics, a startup with a focus on 3D audio tech, without much of the usual acquisition fanfare. According to Protocol, the internet search giant has also acquired the intellectual properties of the startup. This includes the latter’s patents, which may help explain the acquisition.

The acquisition itself happened back in December, according to a US Patent and Trademark Office filing. But the filing itself also lists patents that will also have their ownership transferred. Among them are items related to “motion tracked binaural sound conversion of legacy recordings”. Which sounds a lot like 3D spatial audio, something we have in the Apple AirPods Pro and Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro.

The acquisition itself happened back in December, according to a US Patent and Trademark Office filing. But the filing itself also lists patents that will also have their ownership transferred. Among them are items related to “motion tracked binaural sound conversion of legacy recordings”. Which sounds a lot like 3D spatial audio, something we have in the Apple AirPods Pro and Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro.

This may indicate that Google is considering including 3D spatial audio tech in its next Pixel Buds. The company may also have acquired Dysonics to have its tech power an upcoming AR or VR piece of hardware. Which is quite possible since the company also acquired smart glass maker North last year.

It’s difficult to say for certain what Google is aiming for with the most recent acquisition. But it’s pretty amazing that an acquisition has not showed up in news reports immediately. But ultimately, since Google rarely brings its hardware into Malaysia in an official capacity, we may not actually see the result of this acquisition, even if the company actually makes it.