How To Get The Best Audio Quality On YouTube Music

Apart from discovering hidden YouTube Premium features, one valuable benefit from this paid tier is the inclusion of a premium YouTube Music subscription. However, you're probably missing out on a setting that can improve your listening experience. By default, YouTube Music sets your audio quality to "Normal," which keeps its data consumption balanced and plays music in a decent — but not high — quality. If you want to get the best audio quality here, you can switch to a "High" or "Always High" setting. Both of these settings will use more data to provide a better listening experience, but it won't put the platform's audio quality up to par with lossless audio, which is a feature available in platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, and Tidal.

The "High" or "Always High" setting works best when you're at home or wherever there's a stable Wi-Fi or data connection. Unless you download your playlists ahead of time, it's not a preferred setting for when you're out and about. If your signal is weak, the high audio quality setting can lead to skipping or buffering for the sake of providing better sound quality. On the other hand, the differences in sound definition are notable compared to the "Normal" setting. In the "Always High" streaming setting, songs sound clearer, more crisp, and significantly more open, with vocals and instruments more distinguishable. If you're an avid music listener, the high settings are worth using, but make sure to have offline downloads ready in case your signal or connectivity gets shaky.

In YouTube Music, the default "Normal" setting only streams music up to 128 kbps, while the highest settings are at 256 kbps. To listen to your songs in the highest bit rate, you'll need to adjust a few settings under both streaming and downloads settings. Here's how you can toggle the highest audio quality on YouTube Music:

1. Tap your profile photo on the top right corner of the app.

2. Select "Settings".

3. To adjust your streaming quality, if you're an Android user, select "Data Saving." For iOS users, select "Playback and restrictions."

4. Toggle "Audio quality on mobile network" and "Audio quality on WiFi" to either "High" or "Always High." This setting will be immediately applied to your next streamed song.

5. To adjust the sound quality of your downloaded music, go back to the Settings menu, and select "Downloads and storage."

6. Set Audio Quality to "High".

7. Head back to your music library and re-download your songs or playlists to apply this setting.

YouTube Music has not announced any plans to add lossless audio, so unless the difference between hi-res and lossless audio doesn't matter much for you, it might be best to consider other playtforms. Beyond that, you can always enhance your listening experience through your equipment, whether you're using earbuds, headphones, or speakers. Some brands of those products include in-app equalizers with presets or the ability to manually configure the best sound setting that works for you, or you can use a free tool that can give your headphones a tune-up.