Although immersive (or spatial) audio has a history in cinema, immersive formats have increasingly become a way of experiencing streaming music. How do we perceive sound in 3D space, and how does current technology use that to create an immersive experience? The presentation starts with a brief overview of how our hearing works. - How do we decide where a sound is coming from? - How do room acoustics affect our perception of direction and distance? Next is a survey of contemporary technologies and methods, including: - Stereo: - How do recordings use two channels to create space? - How does binaural rendering work, with or without head tracking? Multi-channel audio - Dolby Atmos and Audio Definition Model - What is really being streamed to your device? - beds: 7.1.2, 7.1.4, 9.1.6... - channel-based, object-based, and scene-based mixing - ambisonics