The long, long wait is finally over: Spotify Lossless is here!
It's been four years since Spotify announced that it would be unleashing its so-called 'Spotify HiFi' subscription tier, and a whopping eight years since we first heard rumours that better-than-CD quality/high-resolution audio support could be on the way, leaving many of our editorial team wondering if the biggest streaming service in the world would ever actually make good on its promise.
We need wonder no longer. The newly announced 'Spotify Lossless' is now a reality and it offers audio streaming up to 24-bit/44.1kHz in FLAC across "nearly every song" in Spotify's large 100 million+ catalogue. That's just higher than CD quality (16-bit/44.1kHz).
This Lossless upgrade is available to existing Spotify Premium (£12/$12 per month) subscribers at no extra cost (sorry, free tier users), and current users will receive a notification once Lossless becomes available.
Spotify Lossless will be available on mobile, desktop and tablet, as well as on third-party devices that support Spotify Connect.
Lossless works with Spotify Connect too, which is great news as so many hi-fi and audio products support Connect already. Launch partners include Sony, Bose, Samsung, Sennheiser, Denon, Marantz, Bluesound and Yamaha, with Sonos support available "in the coming weeks".
Of course, to enjoy full Lossless quality, Spotify recommends streaming over wi-fi or using wired headphones and speakers, or by using Spotify Connect to stream music directly to compatible products, as Bluetooth's limited bandwidth means the audio signal will always be compressed and lossy.
To enable it, users need to tap on their profile icon and then head to settings and privacy. From there, they'll have to tap on media quality and then select the option to enable Lossless quality – you'll have to do this for Wi-Fi, Cellular and Downloads options where needed. You’ll know it's switched on when the Lossless indicator appears in the Now Playing view or bar.
Spotify's big announcement is massive news for the streaming market. We've always admired Spotify for its usability, innovative nature and excellent discovery features, but sound quality has taken a step back as rivals – Tidal, Qobuz, Apple Music – have offered better-sounding streams thanks to hi-res quality being available as standard as part of their current subscriber plans.
It will be interesting to find out how the sound quality of Spotify Lossless compares to its current five-star rivals.
Spotify Lossless will roll out incrementally to more than 50 countries throughout October, with premium subscribers in Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, the US, and the UK already starting to get access from launch.
That, of course, includes the What Hi-Fi? team, so we'll be testing it and updating our Spotify review in due course once we get access.
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My laziness has been rewarded: Spotify HiFi (well, Lossless) is finally here
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