Two weeks ago, rumors circulated that Apple would offer its own high-fidelity lossless audio at no additional charge to subscribers.

Now, thanks to 9to5Google, we have confirmation that this feature definitely exists and have an idea of how it will be offered. The site dissected the Apple Music 3.6.0 beta APK from the Google Play Store on Android and found evidence of high-quality music streaming and download options hidden in the code.

Currently in Apple Music, quality is toggled in the app's settings, with one option for high-quality streaming and another for data storage. The new code mentions high-resolution audio and warns Apple about the consequences of turning it on, whether for streaming or downloading for offline use.

"Lossless audio files retain every detail of the original file," the warning reads. Turning it on consumes significantly more data." The text goes on to explain the difference in actual numbers: your device's storage capacity of 10 GB can hold 3,000 songs in high quality, but only 1,000 songs in lossless and 200 songs in high-resolution lossless, it explains.

And they explain the data used to stream tracks. According to Apple's figures, a 3-minute song currently consumes about 1.5 MB of data at the lowest quality and 6 MB at 256 kbps high quality. The new options would increase this dramatically: 36MB for 24-bit, 48kHz lossless audio, and 145MB for 24-bit, 192kHz high-res lossless.

The new lossless option appears to use Apple's ALAC codec, as opposed to AAC, which Apple typically uses for compression.

Interestingly, there also seems to be a significant divergence between iOS and Android. A previous 9to5Mac dig found references to Dolby Atmos and Dolby Audio in the iOS 14.6 beta build, but there is no such mention of Dolby in the Android teardown. Given that the new tier is not even official yet, much less live, this could be an oversight.

We have previously heard a somewhat dubious rumor that lossless Apple Music would be coming on May 18 with AirPods 3. While that may seem too soon, the reference to lossless audio in the code strongly suggests that this is a feature that will appear sooner rather than later. When it does appear, the upgrade is rumored to be included in the $9.99/month subscription, which would give it a clear advantage over Deezer, Tidal, Amazon Music Unlimited, etc.