Spotify now offers lossless audio
There are many reasons to love Spotify, and just as many to dislike it. One of its many failings has been the fact that audio quality has been – to be diplomatic – less than perfect.
Now, thanks to the long-awaited arrival of lossless audio, this is finally changing. The ability to hear tracks at the best possible quality is something that will be celebrated by Spotify users... but not everyone.
Predictably, lossless audio is not being made available to all Spotify users, only those how pay. This means that lossless listening is exclusive to Spotify Premium, and it is something you will have to enable if you would like to enjoy the uncompromising experience.
But the launch of lossless audio is not just limited to those paying for a Spotify Premium subscription, it is also only available in some regions. If it is available to you, Spotify will let you know via an in-app notification.
Speaking about the new option, Gustav Gyllenhammar, Vice President of Subscriptions at Spotify, says:
The wait is finally over; we’re so excited lossless sound is rolling out to Premium subscribers. We’ve taken time to build this feature in a way that prioritizes quality, ease of use, and clarity at every step, so you always know what’s happening under the hood. With Lossless, our premium users will now have an even better listening experience.
Details matter, and Spotify shares the fact that lossless audio means being able to enjoy listening at “up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC”.
Spotify ramps up quality
If you immediately have concerns about data usage on your mobile, there is good news. Not only is it possible to choose different audio settings, it is possible to have different settings in place for each of your devices. The benefit of the increased data usages on your phone may not be worth it if you have crappy headphones. But on your desktop PC, hooked up to a decent set of speakers, it is a different story.
Spotify advises:
For the smoothest and best listening experience, we recommend streaming lossless music on Wi-Fi using wired headphones or speakers on a non-Bluetooth connection, like Spotify Connect. Currently, Bluetooth doesn’t provide enough bandwidth to transmit lossless audio, so the signal has to be compressed before being sent.
The company provides the following instructions:
- Tap your profile icon in the top left.
- Go to Settings & Privacy → Media Quality.
- Select where you want to enable lossless audio: Wi-Fi, cellular, downloads.
Spotify adds:
And just to note: You’ll need to enable Lossless manually on each device. You’ll know Lossless is on because the Lossless indicator will appear in the Now Playing view or bar, and via the Connect Picker.
The rollout is underway right now. Spotify says that: “Lossless is rolling out gradually to more than 50 markets through October. Premium subscribers in Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, the US, and the UK have already started to get access”.