Spotify Adds Lossless Streaming For Premium Members At No Extra Cost
After eight years of teasing, Spotify subscribers will finally be able to enjoy lossless streaming. More importantly than that, the company isn't releasing a HiFi or Music Pro subscription. Like its competitors, the streaming service is offering a higher sound quality for Premium users at no extra cost.
However, unlike Apple Music and Tidal, Spotify offers up to 24-bit / 44.1 kHz FLAC, while the others services support at up to 24-bit /192 kHz. Even though taking advantage of this higher quality requires specific hardware, we're finally seeing Spotify catching up with competitors. Still, the company will ahve room to offer a more expensive subscription with Hi-Res Lossless and other rumored perks.
At this moment, Spotify says lossless audio will be available to Premium subscribers in 50 markets over the next two months. The first batch will include Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, the U.S., and the UK.
Spotify lossless is here, but this is not why you should stick to the streaming service
While we can almost move on from the fact that Spotify took eight years to release lossless capabilities, regular users shouldn't care that much about it. After all, users need proper earbuds or headphones to take full advantage of this higher sound quality. Most importantly, streaming and downloading lossless songs also use a lot more internet connection and storage than the "high audio quality" Spotify and the other services already offer.
The streaming service says users will get an in-app notification once lossless audio is available for them. Users, then, will be able to find these new settings under the media quality menu. Spotify also says this feature will work with devices from Amazon, Bose, Samsung, Sennheiser, and Sonos starting next month.
More recently, the company relaunched its direct messaging feature inside the app and a new Smart Filters functionality, which the company claims can help you organize saved music based on different factors, such as genre, activity, mood, and more. BGR will keep an eye on the roll out of lossless, and we'll let you know if the company eventually introduces a higher tier with more perks.