Is Apple Music lossless/uncompressed?

“My friend is planning on using the Lightning connection from his iPhone to an AQ Dragonfly Cobalt in case that’s important. ”

Apple Lossless SQ would be more than adequate and enjoyable in above setup. 

@lalitk 

I actually missed that last sentence in the OP.  That is an interesting way to do it and he might get a decent result.

  AirPort Express I think used to top out at CD quality.

  AirPlay isn’t that bad, pretty close to a standard redbook CD.  It’s definitely an improvement over Bluetooth although I haven’t heard the latest Bluetooth codec.  I use streaming primarily to investigate material that I don’t own and then if I really like it I buy a CD or download.  With some older recordings, especially stuff that appeared on budget Classical labels such as Vox, there really isn’t any difference between the CD and AirPlay 

It’s lossless but it’s not on par with Qobuz or Tidal and as highlighted by others it’s challenging and takes some ingenuity to get the source to your HiFi gear in a lossless format.  It’s only lossless with the source, your phone or I-Phone connected directly, hard wired, not over AirPlay.  I got excited when they announced lossless as they have a large catalog of music that rivals any service and it keeps you in the Apple Ecosystem if you have Apple products, but it’s extremely limiting when trying to implement Apple Music in your HiFi rig and it won’t quite match the top services or Amazon Music for that matter.  Their ALAC still compresses the file, unlike a FLAC file that streams in its native format. 
 

Yes, albums marked “Lossless” on Apple Music service is ALAC coded and has Hi Res potential after ALAC enabled DAC conversion, however we don’t have any hi end Apple Music streamers on the market so ALAC streaming is basically limited to Apple devices and several USB type portable DACs similar to Dragonfly Cobalt.

Apple Music streaming service is not comparable to Qobuz or Tidal streaming services due to absence of Hi End Apple Music network players - streamers on the market.