Dolby and Universal Music Group (UMG) have teamed up to bring us ‘thousands of songs' in Dolby Atmos from a 'diverse list of artists across a wide range of genres’. Naturally, they've called this new project Dolby Atmos Music.
The partnership will see Dolby re-mix songs from Universal’s rich catalogue, as well as produce new music, in the object-based surround sound technology, which allows for the creation of more immersive soundscapes in movies and music.
We can expect genre-wide Dolby Atmos Music releases in future, from ‘hip-hop, pop and rock through jazz and classical music’.
Several of Universal’s studios, including Capitol Records Studios (Hollywood), Abbey Road Studios (London) and Berry Hill Studios (Nashville), are now kitted out with Atmos mixing technology to help achieve this.
Michael Frey, UMG’s president of operations, global studios and technologies, said that the pair are “fundamentally expanding how we experience music”, with Dolby’s senior vice president Todd Pendleton saying that Atmos mixing is “freeing artists to be more expressive and experimental with their recordings”.
While it's been several years since we first heard the benefits of Atmos Music in a DJ set at Ministry of Sound, Atmos releases have been arriving more in a trickle than a flood.
Just over 50 titles have been remixed in Atmos - most of which have been released on Blu-ray, save for some streams only available in China. Among the most notable are Hans Zimmer's Live in Prague, Kraftwerk's 3D The Catalogue and R.E.M's Automatic For The People (25th Anniversary Edition), the latter of which we heard and noted as "actually quite deeply affecting".
Fingers crossed this alliance will give Atmos Music the boost it needs (and deserves), then.
MORE:
Behind the scenes with Dolby Atmos at Ministry of Sound
First electronic album “specifically written” for Dolby Atmos
