Is Spotify Lossless truly lossless?

After four years of promises and eight years of rumour, Spotify finally rolled out lossless compression across the world last September.

In the app’s audio quality settings, in addition to the long-standing Low (24kbps, gulp!), Normal (96kbps), High (160kbps) and Very High (320kbps) quality settings, there is now a lossless one. This promises “Up to 24-bit/44.1kHz” in FLAC format. In reality, the great majority of lossless streams are currently CD-standard 16-bit/44.1kHz.

Naturally, we must test whether the lossless streams really are lossless. We could listen closely. We could examine the bit-rate meter on certain streamers to check the purported file quality that is streaming through.

But neither of these could be a test beyond doubt. So I went back to the process I used when checking the same thing on TIDAL, on which we reported in 2024. In that article, we showed that TIDAL really is a bit-perfect match to CDs, at least when the same master files were used for both.

The testing process

The process in summary: I played the track from Spotify through a WiiM streamer, feeding its coaxial digital output into an RME ADI-2 Pro FS R Black Edition DAC/ADC.

The ADC in turn fed the digital stream via USB into a computer where I recorded it using Reaper digital audio workstation software. This resulted in, for each track, a 16-bit, 44.1kHz PCM WAV file, identical to the stream sent out by Spotify.

The question was: was each file identical to a CD version that I ripped directly to computer?

To check, I subtracted the CD version from the streamed version to see what was left. If they were identical, the result would be a file of digital zeros.

When we checked TIDAL back in 2024, we also checked Spotify at the 320kbps quality, and there was a significant divergence from the CD versions.

For this test, I used the seven tracks from seven different CDs that proved to be identical to the TIDAL streams in that earlier test.

The result

All seven tracks delivered by Spotify proved to be identical to the seven matching CD tracks.

Let me spend a moment on the majesty of that result. Seven tracks – they amounted to slightly over 28 minutes in total run time. And that amounted to slightly under 150 million samples, each and every one of which was absolutely identical between the tracks held on the various CDs I purchased in Australia – some pressed here – and the tracks held on the Swedish company’s servers. Both sources involved multiple generations – probably hundreds in the case of Spotify – of duplication, without a single error in the 150 million music samples.

So yes, Spotify Lossless is truly lossless. It delivers bit-perfect results.

The quality of your music listening experience is, therefore, entirely up to the equipment you use to turn those perfect bits and bytes into analogue sound.

But set it for every device...

At least, that is true as long as you are very careful to make sure that you’re receiving those perfect bits and bytes. I learned that the hard way.

Because, it turns out, it is very easy to accidentally leave Spotify in lossy mode. You see, when you go into the quality settings, any changes you make will be only for the currently selected output device.

As soon as Spotify Lossless became available in Australia, I went to my phone and my iPad and my Windows computer and changed the media quality to Lossless for both streaming and download.

But when I recorded the first track using the WiiM streamer, the results were identical (within one bit) to the 320kbps version of Spotify. Not lossless.

So I streamed the sound to the lovely new Lyngdorf TDAI-2210 streaming amplifier, and it also reported the bitstream was 320kbps.

It turned out that to use lossless streaming on a Spotify Connect device, you must change to lossless not only within the app, but while connected to each device. So you need to do it for each “Speaker” you address while you’re using with Spotify Connect.

But you do not need to do it with each phone, tablet or computer you may use for playback. Any one of them is fine. The setting for the playback unit is stored in your profile and remains the same regardless of the app you’re using.

Editor’s note: While Spotify is ready to stream lossless, supporting equipment does require a firmware update from the device manufacturer to receive it. On the whole these updates have been applied smoothly, while some (e.g. for AppleTV) were delayed by several months but are now operational. If your device still shows only up to "Very High" quality allowed, this means it has not yet been updated or certified for Lossless. Keep checking with the manufacturer for available firmware updates.

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