PSA: Apple Music lossless audio is data-free on Telstra

Telstra has allowed mobile customers to stream Apple Music data-free for over half a decade now, but there have always been a few caveats. Downloading songs for offline listening, video streaming, and social interactions all still count against your monthly data cap.

While music streaming is far from data-intensive, Apple recently added lossless audio to Apple Music. Due to the higher quality, you're looking at much more data. At lossless, you're looking at 36MB for a three-minute song, which translates to around 720MB per hour. Or at high-resolution lossless, you're looking at 145MB for a three-minute song, or 2.9GB per hour. For comparison, you're normally looking at 6MB per three-minute song at Apple Music's highest normal quality.

As such, we figured we should check in with Telstra to see what the go with lossless streaming on Apple Music is - and there's good news: a spokesperson told us it's also unmetered. Even if you're listening to high-resolution lossless. That's a massive boon for audiophiles after the highest quality tunes possible on the go.

Data-free Apple Music streaming is available on both postpaid and prepaid Telstra plans and extends to Telstra MVNO Boost Mobile.

Apple Music's lossless quality option is available to all subscribers at no extra price. By default, it's switched off due to its higher data usage. To enable it, follow these steps:

• Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad
• Scroll down to and tap on Music
• Tap Audio Quality
• Toggle on Lossless Audio
• Tap Mobile Data Streaming and choose Lossless or High-Resolution Lossless
• Tap Wi-Fi Streaming and choose Lossless or High-Resolution Lossless

You'll need to be on iOS 14.6 or better to get these settings.

Of course, to get the most out of lossless music, you'll need certain gear. Apple suggests you need wired headphones for lossless, and an external DAC for high-resolution lossless. While there may still be some quality improvements over Bluetooth, it's not technically a lossless standard. Of course, many argue lossless makes very little difference when compared to a high quality compressed file.

Apple Music's lossless audio launched alongside spatial audio with support for Dolby Atmos, which expands on surround sound by adding verticality to music.

Alex Choros

Managing Editor + Group Telco Editor | X | Instagram | Threads | LinkedIn

Alex Choros is the Managing Editor of WhistleOut Australia and an award-winning journalist. He's been writing about consumer technology for over a decade and is an expert on the Australian telco sector, to the point where he knows far too many phone and internet plans by heart. In addition to leading the WhistleOut editorial team, Alex is responsible for ruining the office Sonos with his troubled taste in music.

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