The Weeknd's Apple Immersive Video music experience is out now on Apple Vision Pro, and Apple will demo it at Apple Stores.
What Is Apple Immersive Video?
The Apple Immersive Video format is 180-degree video with 8K resolution, stereoscopic 3D, high dynamic range (HDR), and spatial audio. It's served in the Apple TV app with much higher bitrate than many other immersive video platforms.
We highly praised Apple Immersive Video in our Vision Pro review. It's not possible to cast or record Apple Immersive Video though, so you'll have to take our word for it unless you have access to a Vision Pro.
The experience was originally announced at WWDC 2024 as one of the plethora of Apple Immersive Videos coming to Apple Vision Pro.
The six minute immersive video features a new song from The Weeknd called Open Hearts, and has you "journey alongside The Weeknd through a surreal, haunting cityscape in this electrifying sonic voyage."
I tried Open Hearts, and was blown away. The quality of the cinematography and the contrast of the imaginative VFX scenes on Vision Pro's beautiful micro-OLED displays conjured to an experience I can only describe as striking.
Immersive video seems to be Apple's key focus for post-launch Vision Pro content.
The Weeknd's music experience arrives one month after the first ever Apple Immersive Video short film, Submerged, which we described as "a must-see for cinephiles and prospective filmmakers" in our review.
And in the months before that, Apple released the first episodes of two new Apple Immersive Video series, Boundless and Elevated, as well as 4 minutes of highlights from Super Bowl LVIII.
David Heaney
Apple Immersive Video is exclusively available on Apple Vision Pro for free via the Apple TV app. There's no way to cast or record it, so you'll have to take our word when we say that its quality is so good that it may become a headset-seller for Apple once cheaper Vision headsets arrive.
If you don't have a Vision Pro though, don't fret. For the first time, Apple says it will also play The Weeknd's immersive music experience in Apple Stores which offer Vision Pro demos. This will be available from Friday, and if you're interested you can register here.
