Spotify Launches Lossless HD Audio for Premium Subscribers

Spotify is about to sound higher for thousands and thousands of individuals.

Four years after Spotify initially deliberate to introduce higher-quality audio, the audio streamer is in the end rolling out HD lossless audio to Premium subscribers in choose markets. As Spotify notes in one thing of an understatement, it’s been a extremely requested characteristic. The characteristic gained’t be accessible on the free, ad-supported model of Spotify.

Premium subscribers will obtain a notification within the Spotify app as soon as lossless audio turns into accessible to them. Lossless is rolling out step by step to greater than 50 markets by way of October. Spotify’s Premium subscribers within the U.S. have already began to get entry to the characteristic, together with these in Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and the U.Okay., based on the corporate.

Spotify’s lossless audio characteristic will enable customers to stream tracks encoded in as much as 24-bit depth at a pattern fee of 44.1 kHz by way of FLAC (free lossless audio codec), an open-source compression algorithm that gives playback with out shedding any knowledge from the unique recording. The firm says lossless audio is out there “across nearly every song available on Spotify.”

Until now, the highest-quality audio offered by Spotify used the lossy Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) codec with a bitrate maxing out at 320 kbps. In 2022, Spotify put HD audio on indefinite maintain — and it hasn’t offered any important updates previous to Wednesday’s announcement.

Spotify is taking part in a years-long catch-up on this entrance: Apple Music launched lossless audio in May 2021, whereas Amazon Music did so in 2019. Other music companies like Tidal additionally provide lossless HD audio.

“The wait is finally over,” Gustav Gyllenhammar, Spotify’s VP of subscriptions, mentioned in an announcement. “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.”

Spotify’s lossless HD audio is out there on cell, desktop and pill apps, in addition to on many third-party gadgets that assist Spotify Connect, together with these from Sony, Bose, Samsung, Sennheiser, Denon and Marantz, Bluesound and Yamaha. Support for added gadgets, together with these from Sonos and Amazon, will launch in October.

Spotify customers will have the ability to set lossless audio listening — which consumes extra bandwidth — for Wi-Fi and mobile connectivity, in addition to downloads for offline listening. Customers can also select between Low, Normal, High, Very High and now Lossless music high quality “to provide maximum flexibility and control,” with Spotify’s app displaying how a lot knowledge every of possibility requires.

Spotify customers might want to allow lossless audio manually on every machine. Once it’s activated, a Lossless indicator will seem within the Now Playing view or bar, and by way of the Connect Picker. For the very best listening expertise, the corporate recommends streaming lossless music on Wi-Fi utilizing wired headphones or audio system on a non-Bluetooth connection. According to Spotify, Bluetooth presently doesn’t present sufficient bandwidth to transmit lossless audio, so the sign needs to be compressed earlier than being despatched.

To activate lossless audio within the Spotify app (if it’s accessible in your area), observe these steps: