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Volume normalisation/sound check absent on Apple Music on Android

There is no volume normalisation or sound check option (as found on all competing Android music services and on Apple Music on iPhones) at present on Android. This means that, in practice, playback volume differences between tracks in playlists and whenever shuffling can be enormous. As a consequence the volume must be adjusted manually by the user every time a new track starts, and there is never any sense of just setting a volume level and appreciating everything at the same good volume level that you've set up for the situation.


This has long been a solved problem on digital music services. There are many situations where this makes the Android Apple Music app something that cannot be used and some other solution must be found. Is there any plan to address this for Android users? Cheers.


[I keep and use >1TB of local FLAC from my CDs on my phone, so although I have iPads and a MacBook, using any iPhone for my music use case is not an option]

Posted on Jul 27, 2022 2:33 AM

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Posted on Aug 30, 2022 11:18 AM

@KellySDF yes I think they are happy for the Android version to be substandard. but I'm not going to buy an iphone over it (not even an option for me), I will go over to Deezer or Amazon first [Qobuz also doesn't have normalisation so same problem; Tidal does but isn't actually lossless].

6 replies

Aug 26, 2022 6:25 PM in response to DaveShakey

I posted a nearly identical question/observation months ago. I never received a single reply from Apple or anyone else.


The thing is, I really like the Apple Music service. The inconsistent volume level is beyond annoying, though. If Spotify and Amazon Music can figure it out, I have no doubt Apple could, as well, if it wanted to. I am not holding my breath, however, and have already started migrating my listening elsewhere.


On the treadmill at the gym is not an ideal time to pull out my phone and constantly adjust the volume up and down.

Aug 29, 2022 5:07 PM in response to DaveShakey

I have a similar problem using the Apple Music app on an Android phone.


Whether using wired AirPods or wired Bose over-the-ear headphones, the minimum volume is simply too loud for comfortable use. The app itself doesn't offer any volume adjustment - and the system-wide "media" volume is turned down as far as possible. Still, the volume is too loud.


This makes the Apple Music app essentially unusable for me. Of course, this could be an Android shortcoming, but the effect is the same.

Aug 27, 2022 8:47 AM in response to DaveShakey

One other thought: I'm not quite sure what Apple's strategy is for reaching out to potential customers / subscribers who are not already inside the the IOS ecosystem.


It seems like producing a top-notch Apple Music app for Android might impress some folks enough to check out other Apple technology / products / services. The reasoning would be that, if this app works great, maybe their other stuff works great, too.


OTOH, a sub-standard app for Android might keep them from ever looking.

Aug 30, 2022 11:16 AM in response to Lucky13

@Lucky13 this is the case with everything on Android.


you can go into "developer options" (google how if you haven't been there before) and "disable absolute volume" to allow the setting of volume relative to the earphones. this way you can set both the earphones and device to low volumes to achieve actual low volumes. [by default, without doing this, you have very limited control over earphone volume and the lowest volume is incredibly loud on most devices.]


but yes, it's made worse by the fact Apple Music volume isn't normalised (which for modern albums means lowered in volume).

Volume normalisation/sound check absent on Apple Music on Android

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