Earlier today I posted in the Apple Music/Tidal Atmos streaming Thread about another release from an App, Endel, that uses AI to constantly generate music. I found it interesting that despite fairly regular “album” releases (likely snippets from the never ending “stream”), only these two seem to be in Atmos, so I did some digging.
I recall trying out Endel a few years back and not being as impressed compared to the various Eno apps with respect to “infinite” ambient music. And it didn’t seem especially worth a monthly cost, as seemingly everything is these days (irritatingly they do have a one time payment lifetime sub, but hide the option behind waiting out a full trial).
I redownloaded and have discovered that they seem to have improved in years since, and… shockingly… it’s in *surround!*. My AirPods Pro 2 immediately kicked into “Spatial Audio” mode as the app reports to have a “multichannel” signal. I did a test of their new “motion tracked” “songs” (which pulls movement data from the Apple Watch) while going to my apartments mail room and pick up a package, and I swear the (headphone) surround experience was better than most electronic Atmos mixes I’ve heard.
It gets more interesting: they have an Apple TV app, that at the moment only contains the James Blake “album”, but as the infinitely generated AI stream, same as the phone app… but alas in stereo only. But the Apple TV App Store Page sure… looks like it intends to become feature complete with the phone app at some time. Hopefully when it does, it will have Multichannel output functionality.
Sitting here, listening I… am not sure if it’s worth a monthly or yearly, or lifetime or whatever sub… they do have seemingly a fairly limited free mode, but you have to find and hit all the x’s when it wants you to commit… and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it having my movement data all the time… but definitely something interesting in the streaming Multichannel space.
https://endel.io/
