When Apple unveiled lossless audio for Apple Music, it quietly exposed a contradiction at the heart of its wireless ecosystem: the company's own AirPods, bound by Bluetooth's physical limitations, could not receive the very quality it was promising. Now, a credible leaker suggests Apple may resolve this tension through AirPlay — using Wi-Fi rather than Bluetooth to carry the full weight of lossless sound to its headphones. If true, it would be less a technical patch than a philosophical reconciliation, closing the gap between what Apple sells and what Apple delivers.
Apple Planning AirPlay Update to Enable Lossless Audio on AirPods, Prosser Claims
The first wireless headphones capable of playing lossless audio
Mark
Why would Apple announce lossless audio if AirPods couldn't use it? That seems like a marketing mistake.
Mimi
It wasn't a mistake—it was deliberate. Apple wanted to show that lossless audio was coming to Apple Music broadly, available to anyone with any headphones, not just people who buy AirPods. That matters legally and politically right now.
Mark
So they're trying to look fair-minded while they work on making their own products better?
Mimi
Exactly. They're saying "this feature is for everyone" while they quietly build the infrastructure to make it work best on their own gear. It's a both-and strategy.
Mark
But why not just wait until AirPods could handle it before announcing anything?
Mimi
Because Apple Music needed the announcement. The lossless feature is a big deal for the service itself. Holding it back would have hurt the product launch. Better to announce it now and add AirPods support later.
Mark
Do you think this will actually happen, or is it just a rumor?
Mimi
Prosser has been reliable before, and the technical approach he describes makes sense. But until Apple says it officially, it's still speculation. The real test comes at WWDC.
El Pulso
- Apple's lossless audio announcement landed with an asterisk — its most popular wireless headphones were immediately excluded, leaving audiophiles holding a promise they couldn't hear.
- Bluetooth's bandwidth ceiling isn't a bug to be fixed but a physical law, making the incompatibility not just embarrassing but structurally stubborn.
- Leaker Jon Prosser reports Apple is engineering an AirPlay workaround — using Bluetooth only for device discovery, then handing off to Wi-Fi to carry the actual lossless stream.
- The move may be as much about legal optics as acoustics, with Apple's Epic Games battle making a show of openness and choice strategically valuable right now.
- WWDC 2021 in June is emerging as the likely stage for a formal announcement, timed to coincide with lossless audio's own rollout.
- If the approach scales, HomePod and third-party AirPlay 2 speakers could follow, quietly redrawing the map of wireless audio.
When Apple unveiled lossless audio for Apple Music, it quietly exposed a contradiction at the heart of its wireless ecosystem: the company's own AirPods, bound by Bluetooth's physical limitations, could not receive the very quality it was promising. Now, a credible leaker suggests Apple may resolve this tension through AirPlay — using Wi-Fi rather than Bluetooth to carry the full weight of lossless sound to its headphones. If true, it would be less a technical patch than a philosophical reconciliation, closing the gap between what Apple sells and what Apple delivers.
Apple's announcement of lossless audio for Apple Music carried an uncomfortable footnote: none of its AirPods — not the standard model, not the Pro, not even the AirPods Max — could actually use it. The culprit was Bluetooth, whose bandwidth simply cannot carry lossless audio without compression. It was a rare moment of public dissonance for a company known for tight integration between hardware and software.
According to leaker Jon Prosser, Apple is working on a fix that reframes the problem entirely. Rather than pushing lossless audio through Bluetooth, AirPods would use AirPlay — Apple's Wi-Fi-based streaming protocol. The handshake would still begin over Bluetooth for discovery and pairing, but the audio itself would travel over a personal Wi-Fi connection, giving lossless streaming a lane wide enough to carry it properly.
Prosser frames the original announcement's timing as deliberate strategy. With Apple embroiled in its App Store legal battle with Epic Games, announcing lossless availability across all headphones — not just its own — projected an image of openness. It echoed Apple's earlier move of opening its Find My network to third-party devices ahead of AirTags.
No official confirmation exists, and no release date has been named. But WWDC 2021 in June is the natural window, arriving just as lossless audio itself goes live. Should Apple follow through, the ripple effects could reach HomePod and third-party AirPlay 2 speakers alike — turning a software update into something closer to an ecosystem shift.
Apple made a bold announcement about lossless audio coming to Apple Music, a feature that audiophiles had been waiting for. The company promised to bring the full catalog into lossless quality by year's end. Then came the awkward part: the feature wouldn't work with AirPods. Not the standard AirPods, not the Pro version, not even the newly announced AirPods Max. The reason was technical and immovable—Bluetooth simply doesn't have the bandwidth to carry lossless audio without compression. It was a strange move, announcing a premium feature that couldn't reach the company's own wireless headphones.
But according to Apple leaker Jon Prosser, that gap may not last long. In a recent episode of his Front Page Tech show, Prosser reported that Apple is developing a software update that would fundamentally change how AirPods handle audio. Instead of relying on Bluetooth's limited capacity, the headphones would use AirPlay—Apple's wireless protocol—to stream lossless audio. The mechanism would work like this: your iPhone or Mac would use Bluetooth to discover and initially connect to the AirPods, but once paired, the devices would establish a personal Wi-Fi connection that would carry the actual audio stream. In theory, this would make AirPods the first wireless headphones capable of playing lossless audio wirelessly.
Prosser claims the update would be relatively straightforward to implement, requiring what he describes as a simple software push to AirPods. The timing of Apple's lossless announcement—made before the headphones could actually use it—wasn't accidental, according to Prosser's analysis. He suggests Apple was being strategic about optics, particularly given the ongoing legal battle with Epic Games over App Store practices. By announcing lossless audio availability for all headphones, not just Apple's own products, the company could demonstrate openness and choice. It's the same reasoning Apple used when it opened its Find My network to third-party devices before launching AirTags, allowing non-Apple trackers to use the infrastructure first.
The update hasn't been officially confirmed, and Prosser doesn't have a specific release date. However, the timing points toward Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June as a likely venue for the announcement, especially since lossless audio itself is arriving that month. If Apple does move forward with AirPlay support for AirPods, the implications could extend well beyond headphones. The same approach could theoretically work for HomePod speakers or even third-party AirPlay 2 speakers from manufacturers like Sonos, potentially reshaping how wireless audio works across Apple's ecosystem and beyond.
For now, the announcement remains in the realm of rumor. But it would solve a problem that frustrated many users the moment Apple revealed lossless audio couldn't reach its most popular wireless audio product. Whether the company actually pursues this path will become clear in the coming weeks.
Citas Notables
Apple is planning a massive software update for AirPods that will allow users to wirelessly stream lossless audio via AirPlay, rather than Bluetooth.— Jon Prosser, Front Page Tech
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