Volume drops when listening to Apple Music

This setting works best for me. When I turn SoundCheck off it sounds really distorted even with the volume on VERY low. I use a Scarlett 2i2 Audio Interface with two JBL monitors with the Direct Monitoring setting set to OFF.

I have this same issue in macOS Monterey 12.2.1 (21D62). When I turn off the Sound Check and turn it again, the volume increases, but when it passes to the next song the problem occurs again.

It happens on my MBP as well and I can tell it's not related to any Apple "device" since it also happens on a hackintosh :)

The volume reduction happens after a 3-4 seconds of start playing. It doesn't happen if you hit pause/unpause quickly (1 second). The volume reduction happens within a shorter time depending on how short was your pause/unpause sequence.

I can confirm it only happens streaming radio stations (personal or artist based). Playing an album or a playlist directly isn't affected by this volume fluctuation.

It works fine if I stream the radios from the iPhone to the same speakers, so it's a Mac + Apple Music app only problem.

I have this same issue. Ever since upgrading to Big Sur. Any time i play my personal radio station it starts at "normal" volume then after a couple seconds it will decrease about 25-30%. Any Apple "radio" station has always in the past played at a lower volume than an Album or Playlist. That was fine but this is super annoying. Always happens.

I am new Apple Music user. I am experiencing the volume being low one min and sounding like crap. The only way I found to make it work is to turn the eq to late night , turn up, then back to off, turn up Then turn sound check on and off, and each time keep turning up the volume. After messing around a bit I find the sound is loud and sounds great. Till the next time. Apple fix this crap. I may have to switch back to Spotify too cuz this *****.

I have noticed this as well. When streaming Apple Music Lossless files it is super loud on my desktop (the music app on my phone doesn't do this). Everything else is a more normal volume. so I end up listening to my music with the volume at like 30% of the volume slider. upon further investigation (audio engineer here), it seems that the apple lossless tracks are overall highly compressed compared to a CD rip I have done of the same songs (both 16bit 44.1khz files). this is only when played through the Apple Music app on my desktop. as everything plays at a normal volume on my phone. Sound check is off on all devices as with it on local files were even quieter, but the lossless apple music files i stream were at a more normal volume. for context, if i put the volume at max it is severely clipping on most tracks. I bring the slider down to about -12db average peak level. when playing a track that isn't apple lossless and streaming from apple music it comes in at about -21, that is almost a 10db difference!! when boosting the volume slider to max, it doesn't clip, but is practically at 0. Playing from local mp3 or ALAC (apple lossless audio codec) files it is a similar difference. I am wondering if this is an issue with how the volume slider works with apple lossless streaming vs others? I am grateful there is no issue with this on my phone when playing music in my car or on the go, that would be very annoying. Downloading the files to my computer doesn't change anything either. Hopefully this all gets resolved soon too!

Thankfully I found this thread as I could not verbalise to anyone around me how the volume changes within the first 4-5 seconds of any song. ~85/90% of my collection is on Apple's Lossless format and even playing a song in AIFF behaves in the same manner.

Bear in mind, these are all songs either ripped from CDs or purchased through Music app. I am not using Apple Music's streaming services whatsoever.

I am running on a MacBook Pro 13-inch 2019 with the following specifications:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)

iOS: macOS Monterey Version 12.4

Processor: 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7

Memory: 16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3

Startup Disk: Macintosh HD

Graphics: Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 1536 MB

I am running Apple Music Version 1.2.4.3

I have unchecked and rechecked "Sound Enhancer" and also unchecked/rechecked "Sound Check." I typically do not use "Sound Check" at all as it makes my music collection sound like someone turned on the Dolby Noise Reduction from a sound system from the 1980's (which is not a good thing).

Also, Apple Music used to run through newly imported music and determine the volume level (in decibels). It has ceased to do so within the past week. Is this feature no longer available?

Please advise, anyone.

Same issue here, this only started for me after updating to Big Sur 11.2.3. All music in my library play normal. Any apple music song will play normal for a couple seconds then drops about 50%. I am using a focusrite Clarett 8 pre as my DAC, but this has worked flawlessly since I had this setup over 5 years. Just started having issues today for the first time, updated Big Sur last night. Sound check is not enabled, no volume changes on hardware or software.

I have same problem. After 2 seconds, it seems that the musica loses EQ, becoming flat. This has been happening since Big Sur update.

Today, I decided test Monterrey 12.0 Beta (21A5506j) but unfortunately the problem remains. Remembering it only happens with Music on MacOS. iOS doesn't have this problem.

Hey Apple, don't make me regret canceling Spotify.

Well... I tried to turn OFF Lossless, as well as tried all three versions of Lossless: High Quality (AAC 256kbps) [which is NOT Lossless but under Lossless for some reason haha], Lossless and HQ Lossless... and it is still the same. I am trying to jump ship from Spotify too but this is making me rethink Apple Music.

I am still having this issue with my iPad. Eq and sound check are off. iPad doesn’t have the Atmos options. Turned off Siri voice as it’s like it’s listening for something in low volume passages in the music.

I am playing a local playlist of my own music saved on the device. Shouldn’t be streaming anything. Just using local network to my AirPort Extreme. Hard wired to the airport and from there to the sound bar. Only the iPad is wireless

This is still happening more than a year later. I upgraded to the public beta of Monterey 12.5 hoping that would change something but it didn't.

It's not soundcheck, it's not software for hardware limiting. It's a really annoying bug for a PAID service.

I've used Lossless from the start so that isn't a fix for me either.

Anyone?

Hi. Have also noticed this little anomaly. I do not use Sound Check (never have done) and it is not checked but yet the volume level subtly changes after a second that play has started. This anomaly is also not restricted to music purchased on the iTunes store and is apparent from any file played within 'Music'. I am still on Big Sur 11.6.8 so this volume bug may well be a problem related to this OS. Would be interested to know if it still occurs in Monterey.

I have this issue on my iPad as well as my Mac.

As with the others: EQ, Sound Check, Sound Enhancer, Crossfade and Dolby Atmos are all off/disabled.