Now that Spotify Lossless is coming, us loyal subscribers can sit back and relax after what feels like an eternity since it was first announced. The announcement has raised a number of questions about Spotify's biggest upgrade yet, and we're here to answer them for you.
It's exciting to finally be able to listen to music on Spotify without it sounding like it's being played through a cloth, but there are some key things to note before you enable lossless audio. From when it will be available to the nitty gritty technical details, here are five points to bear in mind when it comes to Spotify Lossless.
1. It’s rolling out now, but not everywhere
In classic Spotify style, Lossless has already started rolling out to Premium users in a handful of regions and will gradually continue to spread to more than 50 countries throughout October, as per Spotify’s initial announcement.
Premium users in Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, the US, and the UK have already started to get access. As for its availability outside of these countries, Spotify hasn’t revealed its full list of other regions that will have access to Lossless yet.
2. It’s slightly better than Hi-Res, but doesn’t match competitors
Spotify Lossless allows you to stream songs up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC, which our audio editor Becky Scarrott says is “actually better than CD-quality” – which is specified as 16-bit/44.1kHz. Spotify has stated that Lossless is available "across nearly every song" in its library.
However, its streaming competitors offer slightly better audio quality. For comparison's sake, Apple Music (via AAC and ALAC) and Tidal (via AAC, ALAC and FLAC) both offer a maximum bitrate of 24-bit/192KHz lossless audio quality. Both platforms offer this across their entire song catalog.
3. Spotify Lossless works with Spotify Connect
As well as being available on mobile, tablet and desktop (with the right gear), Spotify Lossless can be used when playing music on devices that support Spotify Connect, such as Sony, Bose, Sennheiser, Samsung, and more. Support for Amazon and Sonos devices will also land next month.
However, it’s going to take a little more time before Bluetooth devices will be able to support Lossless as many don't yet support the new generation of codecs that can transmit CD-quality audio, such as aptX Lossless. Spotify shared the following on the matter: “Currently, Bluetooth doesn’t provide enough bandwidth to transmit lossless audio, so the signal has to be compressed before being sent.”
4. You have to enable it yourself
Unlike Apple Music where lossless and hi-res audio is the default, you’ll have to enable Lossless in Spotify’s settings manually. To do this, tap your profile icon in the top left of the Spotify app, and head to Settings and Privacy. From there, select Media Quality, and the Lossless option will appear with other audio streaming options for WiFi, cellular, and downloads.
Instead of setting Lossless as the default, Spotify has kept its other custom Low, Normal, High, and Very High audio quality settings, acknowledging that everyone listens differently.
5. Be weary with how you use it
It’s great to finally be able to listen with lossless audio in Spotify, but you should note that listening to music with Lossless enabled means it comes with a larger streaming and download size. Listening with Spotify Lossless will use roughly 1GB an hour.
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