Spotify rolls out long-awaited lossless audio for Premium users

Spotify has officially begun rolling out lossless audio streaming to Premium subscribers, marking a long-awaited upgrade in music quality on the platform. The new feature allows users to stream music in up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC, a format comparable to CD quality, across supported devices using Spotify Connect.

According to Spotify, Lossless is rolling out gradually across more than 50 markets through October, with Premium users in Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, the US, and the UK already gaining access. Users will receive an in-app notification when the feature becomes available to them.

Lossless quality offers larger, uncompressed files that preserve more of the original recording. However, Spotify warns that Bluetooth connections cannot transmit full lossless quality due to bandwidth limitations. Instead, the company recommends wired headphones or speakers via Spotify Connect for the most accurate playback.

For comparison, Spotify previously capped audio quality at 320kbps. The new FLAC-based Lossless option brings Spotify closer to services like Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon Music HD, and Qobuz, which already support lossless streaming at higher fidelity.

Still, while lossless is now available, the practical impact for many listeners may be negligible. Research and listening tests
suggest most people can’t consistently distinguish between compressed and lossless tracks, especially when using Bluetooth headphones or listening in noisy environments.

As SoundGuys notes, bitrate, bit depth, and sample rate may sound impressive, but human hearing has natural limits. CD quality — 16-bit/44.1 kHz — is already well beyond what most people can perceive. Beyond that, the mastering of a track often plays a more important role in perceived audio quality than file format alone.

Spotify’s Lossless rollout follows years of delays since the feature — originally teased as “Spotify HiFi” — was announced in early 2021. Unlike some rivals, Spotify has chosen to include Lossless as part of the existing Premium subscription, without requiring an additional fee or separate tier — at least for now.