After years of teasing, Spotify is launching high-quality audio to Premium subscribers — with no new tier new necessary. The upgrade keeps all the detail in a recording, allowing you to listen to tracks as they were mastered, not as files that have been compressed and clipped to be more bandwidth-friendly.
Lossless streaming has been a checkbox item for rivals for years, and Spotify’s slow walk annoyed audiophiles. With this rollout, the world’s biggest music service has ultimately caught up and leaves the feature within the existing Premium plan.
What Spotify Lossless Delivers
Spotify’s is also 24-bit/44.1kHz FLAC. That’s real lossless — no psychoacoustic trimming or bit-thinning like on MP3 or AAC — and it’s a step beyond the 16-bit depth of CD. The extra bit depth increases the potential dynamic range from ~96 dB (16-bit) to as much as 144 dB (24-bit), which can come in handy if you want to capture a lot of the subtle detail found in well-mastered tracks.
That comes with a few trade-offs versus some rivals: services like Apple Music, Tidal and Qobuz boast catalogs that reach 24-bit/192 kHz in certain cases. As tech outlets such as The Verge have pointed out, Spotify’s cap is lower on sample rate. 24-bit at 44.1 kHz, though, continues to be a significant fidelity bump for most listeners and masters, and avoids chasing the upsampling dragon.
Expect a subtle UI change when it’s on: a green indicator appears on the Now Playing view or bar to confirm lossless playback. Spanning mobile, desktop and tablets, the feature needs to be toggled on per device.
How to Turn on Lossless in Spotify
Open Spotify, tap your profile icon, and go to Settings & Privacy. Navigate to Media Quality and opt for Lossless for streaming over Wi‑Fi and, if desired, cellular. You can also choose Lossless for downloads, which would allow offline files to keep their original resolution. Do this for every device you use; this setting doesn’t sync automatically.
If you don’t have the option yet, it is still rolling out. The feature is coming to around 50 markets, including the US and the UK, for current Premium customers. No add‑on fee or new app account is needed.
How to Read and Use this Data
This is, more or less, the logic of a lossless stream; it’s a bigger file than one that has been compressed for the masses.
Expect to plan for up to roughly 1GB of data per hour of listening at Spotify’s top lossless setting. If you’re on a data plan with a finite cap, turn on lossless on Wi‑Fi only, or download albums in advance.
For the most pristine signal path, go wired. Bluetooth offers some type of lossy codec (SBC, AAC and most aptX codecs) no matter what, so your lossless file doesn’t help you much. If you absolutely have to go wireless, you want a pair of headphones and a phone that support the newer, lossless‑capable codecs, but even then you still need a cable to run from the phone to a decent DAC and your headphones to hear that difference.
With desktops, employing an external USB DAC can overcome OS‑level resampling and provide bit‑perfect output. On phones, though, most USB‑C dongle DACs play 24‑bit files automatically, and iOS as well as Android are good with class‑compliant USB audio. Device volume should be set to maximum or close to. For best results adjust your amp or dongle gain.
Availability and Device Support
Lossless playback is supported by Spotify Connect on supported speakers and headphones from various manufacturers, including Sony, Bose, Samsung and Sennheiser. More ecosystem support (including the popular multiroom platforms) is planned, so you can expect more gear to support it down the line.
And because enabling lossless is per device, just don’t forget to turn it on for your phone and tablet and your laptop, and whatever desktop system you hook up the external speakers to. That indicator on the Now Playing screen is your assurance that you’re really hearing the lossless stream.
Why This Move Matters
Streaming is now the dominant source of recorded music revenue worldwide; industry groups like IFPI say it makes up well over two‑thirds of the market. By including lossless in the standard Premium package, we make it a lot harder for people to have one subscription for casual listening and other, more specialized accounts for serious listening.”
Yes, the numbers game is on some adversaries’ side when they are at the very top of the resolution ladder. But quality, playback chain and headphones matter far more than a sample‑rate spec sheet. On properly executed releases, 24‑bit/44.1 kHz is a real (if modest, some argue) fidelity bump that you can really hear—especially on from wired gear—without expanding storage or bandwidth to absurd proportions.
Bottom line: If you are a Premium subscriber, you now have an option at no extra cost to listen at higher fidelity. Turn it on, plug it in, and drop the needle on a record of a favorite album you know well. You’ll hear it in the quiet passages, the space around vocals, the decay of instruments — details that compression often shaves off.