Headphones and earbuds took major steps forward in 2026, with new hardware releases from Apple, Bose, and Sony leading the charge. On the software front, Spotify finally delivered on a years-long promise to make lossless audio available to subscribers. For accessibility, Google built Auracast support right into Android, making the wireless broadcasting standard available on select Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy, Xiaomi, and POCO phones.
Heading into 2026, there's still plenty of work to do. Headphones and earbuds like the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Gen 2 or the AirPods Pro 3 are nearly perfect, but audio software could use better support for high-resolution Bluetooth codecs. Plus, I have an outside-the-box request for Android phone makers and a big concern about how AI-generated content will affect the music industry.
