Prior to embedding a watermark in an audio signal, a spectral representation of the audio signal and a spectral representation of the watermark signal are determined. The spectral representation of the watermark signal is then processed on the basis of a psychoacoustic masking threshold of the audio signal. The processed watermark signal is combined with the audio signal to obtain an audio signal bearing a watermark. The spectral representation of the watermark signal is processed iteratively as follows: first a predetermined watermark initial value is selected, then the interference introduced into the spectral representation of the audio signal after a quantization of the spectral representation of the audio signal is determined and then, if the interference introduced by the watermark initial value exceeds the predetermined interference threshold, the watermark initial value is modified progressively until the resulting interference introduced into the spectral representation of the audio signal after quantization is less than or equal to the predetermined interference threshold. The modified watermark initial value at the end of the iteration is used as the processed watermark signal to be combined with the audio signal. As a result it is no longer possible for a watermark to be quantized out. Instead, full control over the energy of the watermark is achieved. A watermark can therefore be embedded in an audio signal to provide either the best possible degree of watermark detectability or the best possible audio quality.