More than four years ago, in February 2021, Spotify announced that it was to introduce Spotify HiFi, a high quality lossless music streaming tier, later that year. That never happened, and the tech giant never explained why.
Today, the company finally did it. Spotify has announced it is bringing lossless audio to its music streaming service, and it is called Lossless on Spotify Premium.
Rather than a service you have to pay more to get, lossless quality audio streams and downloads will be available as options in Spotify settings to all Spotify Premium subscribers. This is similar to Apple Music, which offers lossless audio as part of its standard subscription fee.
Lossless is a term for audio that retains all the data from the original recording, rather than the compressed audio files that Spotify has been restricted to until now. Spotify says you’ll now be able to stream tracks in up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC quality, “unlocking greater detail across nearly every song available on Spotify.”
“The wait is finally over; we’re so excited lossless sound is rolling out to Premium subscribers,” said Gustav Gyllenhammar, VP Subscriptions, Spotify. “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.”
Lossless audio quality for Spotify Premium is rolling out from today until the end of October in more than 50 markets, according to Spotify. It said that 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, though I have not yet on my account.
You’ll be able to access Lossless on mobile, desktop and tablet, as well as several devices that support Spotify Connect, such as headphones and speakers from Sony, Bose, Samsung and Sennheiser.
So, what’s the catch?
“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,” Spotify said
“Currently, Bluetooth doesn’t provide enough bandwidth to transmit lossless audio, so the signal has to be compressed before being sent.”
This is the case for all lossless streaming services. To get the actual full quality effect, you’ll need to use Spotify with an Android device with headphone jack or an iPhone with a high-quality USB-C audio dongle, or through compatible speakers.
Still, it’s good to see Spotify offer this at no extra cost. It’s just a shame it took so long for the firm to do it.