After years of rumors and waiting, it’s finally here. Spotify has a lossless audio option for those who want a better streaming experience. We’ve been hearing about it since 2021, and today Spotify Premium users can finally take advantage of lossless streaming.
It’s been a long time coming, all while subscribers watched as Apple, Tidal, and others rolled out their own hi-res streaming options. Well, the wait is over. Interestingly enough, Spotify’s Hi-Fi tier is simply called “Lossless,” and it’s pretty easy to turn on. Additionally, today’s update adds a few other much-needed settings and controls.
In its blog post, Spotify clarifies that its all-new lossless audio streaming will only be available to its Premium subscribers and is available in over 50 markets. Once enabled, users can stream endless music in up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC. The result should be a richer sound packed with greater detail across every song in its catalog. Here’s how to turn it on.
To start, you’ll need to manually enable the new Lossless mode on each individual device rather than having it be a setting inside your account. Fire up Spotify, head to Profile > Settings > Media Quality >, and click on the highest Lossless quality mode. It’s that easy, and your ears will instantly thank you—as long as you have good enough headphones and a few other things.
Once turned on, you’ll see a lossless badge near the bottom of the screen in the Now Playing view. In addition to this huge feature, Spotify also added more settings and controls over streaming when on Wi-Fi vs. mobile data or for downloads. And yes, you can download songs for offline listening in Lossless quality, but keep in mind that it’ll use up a lot more space.
As a reminder, Lossless audio is best when using wired headphones. Here’s what Spotify itself had to say: “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.”
Spotify’s new Lossless option is only available for Spotify Premium users on mobile, desktop, tablets, and most devices that support Spotify Connect. Some of those include brands like Bose, Sony, Samsung, Sennheiser, and many others. However, the announcement mentioned that specific brands like Sonos and Amazon support should arrive in the coming weeks.
Last but not least, while Spotify said this new tier will be available in over 50 markets, it’s not all arriving at once. 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, and the rest should start to see the option appear throughout September and October.
Either way, it’s about time, and now we need YouTube Music to offer something similar.
Source: Spotify
