Steven Wilson Launches Online Immersive Audio Platform ‘Headphone Dust’

Steven Wilson is one of contemporary music’s most innovative and influential figures. A pioneer of modern prog rock, Wilson is best known as founder and frontman of the English rock band Porcupine Tree. The six-time Grammy-nominated musician, songwriter, and producer also has had a prolific solo career. Beyond his own music, Wilson has become something of a go-to guy for remixing other artists’ music in surround sound and spatial audio formats. He has remixed the work of Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Tears For Fears, The Who, Black Sabbath, the Grateful Dead, and more. Now Steven Wilson has announced the launch of Headphone Dust, a new direct-to-consumer online platform dedicated to offering high-resolution Stereo, 5.1, and Dolby Atmos versions of his work.

Wilson envisions Headphone Dust as a one-stop-shop for his catalog, including lossless Dolby Atmos mixes that are usually only available on Blu-ray disc. The goal is to make “studio-quality immersive sound accessible to everyone” while simultaneously solving the problem of physical media obsolescence. In a streaming-dominated music industry, Wilson believes that fans should be able to own the music they pay for, and sees this new platform as a major shift in music distribution — at least for audiophiles and enthusiasts. Streaming remains a great way to discover new music, but it’s not good for growing a collection or maintaining an archive. Like other download sites, Headphone Dust offers a more permanent way to listen to the highest-quality versions of your favorite music. But unlike other sites, Headphone Dust will not require listeners to navigate a variety of different formats before making a purchase, nor will listeners be required to purchase an album in multiple formats in order to enjoy different presentations of the same material.

Headphone Dust relies on the MKV (Matroska Multimedia Container) container format, which essentially functions as a “virtual Blu-ray.” The MKV format may be new to many audiophiles, but it will be familar to those accustomed to working with digital video files. In the context of Headphone Dust, the MKV format simply provides a lossless container for multiple versions of the same recordings — just as you might find on a Blu-ray disc. A single (very large) download gives the user access to a given album in a variety of formats: compressed Dolby Atmos, Dolby Atmos True HD (lossless), 5.1 Surround, Hi-Resolution Stereo, Binaural headphone mixes, and so on. Even 4K video can be included, when available. These downloads do not include DRM restrictions, nor do they rely on a specific playback device or walled-garden platform. There will be a learning curve for those enthusiasts who are new to playing immersive audio outside of the streaming and Blu-ray ecosystems, but users of digital media servers will feel right at home from the jump. The first Headphone Dust release is Impossible Tightrope: Live In Madrid, which documents the final night of the 2025 European leg of Wilson’s The Overview tour. The album includes the full two-hour show mixed in Stereo, 5.1, and Dolby Atmos. Impossible Tightrope: Live in Madrid will not receive a physical release and will not be available anywhere else.

Headphone Dust is more than a store — it's a passion project to bring immersive audio to fans worldwide. Wilson’s expertise as a producer and remixer shapes every release, ensuring unparalleled quality. Whether it’s a classic album reimagined in spatial audio or a brand new release, our goal is to make studio-quality sound accessible to everyone.

— Headphone Dust

Headphone Dust will offer a “Definitive Digital Edition” of any album for which there are Atmos mixes available. This includes the aforementioned MKV file, plus individual FLAC downloads of Stereo, 5.1, and Binaural mixes. If Atmos is not available, the “Standard Digital Edition” will be FLAC only. Some Definitive Digital Edition releases will include a secondary MKV file containing bonus features, such as documentaries and demo tracks, in another nod to the Blu-ray experience. PDF booklets featuring artwork, lyrics, and recording credits are also included.

Playback

Headphone Dust’s website includes a playback guide to help users figure out how to enjoy immersive audio, which can be a daunting undertaking for newcomers. Headphone Dust recommends the use of a dedicated media server or player app rather than a basic desktop video player like VLC. For Apple users (Apple TV, Mac, and iOS devices), Headphone Dust recommends Infuse, which offers a premium, native interface for high-resolution playback, according to the playback guide. Users must subscribe to Infuse Pro for Dolby Atmos support, however. For users of a Windows PC or Android-based streaming device, such as the Nvidia Shield, Amazon Fire TV, or Google Chromecast, Headphone Dust recommends software from Plex and Kodi.

It’s worth mentioning that the raw audio data must be bit-streamed directly to your AVR or AV processor for decoding if you want to hear the Dolby TrueHD (lossless) Atmos track as intended. There are some specific hardware requirements in order for this to work. Some hardware players, such as the Apple TV 4K, decode the audio internally, and will discard the 3D height effects in the process. You need a player supporting HDMI Bitstream Passthrough, and a direct HDMI connection to an Atmos-capable AVR or AV processor. You can go through a TV only if it is equipped with eARC (not standard ARC). Headphone Dust’s recommended players include the following: the Nvidia Shield, the Zidoo Z9X Pro, the Dune HD Premier, the Neumi Atom 4K, the Homatics 4K Plus, and the Oppo 203/205 Blu-ray players. Again, Headphone Dust recommends Kodi, a free and open-source media center application. Some devices, such as the Nuemi and Oppo players, have their own pre-installed internal video players.

For some time I’ve been planning to have an online platform where I can focus on making audiophile versions of the things I work on. I love (and am still committed to) the Blu-ray format, but not everyone has the capacity to play these discs, not to mention that these releases need to be limited and tend to go out of print quickly, meaning the audio becomes unavailable. So I’m happy to announce that a brand new Headphone Dust high-res audio resource has now launched and will provide a permanent home for my work to be downloaded in high resolution, 5.1, and Atmos / spatial audio. To begin with I’m concentrating on my solo catalog, but in time I hope to also be able to include other work with my own bands / collaborations and the many artists I’ve mixed for. To celebrate the launch an exclusive live album is now available. Impossible Tightrope is a complete document of the final concert of the European leg of The Overview tour. Recorded in front of a lively Madrid audience, the two hour plus show has been mixed from the multitracks in stereo, 5.1 and Dolby Atmos. There are no plans for any physical release of this recording. Additionally, I have remixed two of my most popular albums, The Raven That Refused to Sing (2013), and Hand.Cannot.Erase (2015) into Dolby Atmos for the first time. Raven is out now and Hand.Cannot.Erase. will be available soon!

— Steven Wilson

I'm a huge fan of Porcupine Tree, as well as Steven Wilson’s solo work, his collaborations with Blackfield, and his remixes of some of my favorite prog rock artists like King Crimson and Yes. I’m especially thrilled that Mr. Wilson embraced the Dolby Atmos format after Audioholics first introduced him to it during our Hand Cannot Erase interview over 10 years ago! Today, Wilson fully leverages spatial audio, using Dolby Atmos not only to mix his own music but also to reimagine classic recordings for other artists—demonstrating how immersive audio can elevate both classic and modern prog rock.

— Gene DellaSala

More information: Headphone Dust