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Spotify is finally rolling out its long-awaited, high-quality “lossless” audio streaming feature after years in the works, finally putting it on par with competitors like Apple Music, which have long boasted superior music streaming quality.
Spotify said Wednesday morning it is starting to roll out high-quality, “lossless” audio to paid subscribers in 50 markets through October, with users in some countries, including the United States and United Kingdom, already starting to get access.
“Lossless” audio means the quality of music matches that of the original recording and is not compressed or diminished by the streaming service, with Spotify boasting the new feature will give listeners “every detail of the music.”
Gustav Gyllenhammar, Spotify’s vice president for subscriptions, acknowledged the “wait is finally over” in a news release, stating Spotify has “taken time to build this feature in a way that prioritizes quality, ease of use, and clarity at every step.”
Lossless audio has long been a highly demanded feature from fans: Reports indicated Spotify was testing the feature as early as 2017, and in 2021, Spotify promised the feature was coming later that year before delaying it indefinitely in 2022.
Spotify users have to manually enable lossless audio in their settings. Users must navigate to settings and privacy, then navigate to media quality, where they can then choose lossless audio quality. Spotify said the lossless audio feature has to be enabled for each device a user uses Spotify on, and users can specify whether they want lossless to apply to downloaded music or music streamed over Wi-Fi or cellular data. Lossless audio is not supported by Bluetooth connections, Spotify said, so the streaming service recommended listening over wired headphones or through speakers.
Loyal Apple Music users have long boasted their preferred streaming service beats Spotify in terms of audio quality—but once Spotify rolls out lossless audio, it will finally offer high-quality music on par with Apple Music and other competitors like Tidal and Amazon Music. Apple Music, Spotify’s closest competitor in terms of subscribers, has offered lossless audio to users since 2021. Spotify still outpaces Apple Music in subscribers: Spotify said in a July earnings report it had 276 million global subscribers, and the Wall Street Journal reported in July it is the world’s biggest music streaming service and accounts for more than a third of U.S. music streaming alone. Apple Music does not publicly release the amount of subscribers it has. But users and product reviews have long pointed to superior music quality as a big plus Apple Music had over Spotify. A CNN product review comparing the two said Apple Music’s quality was a “big advantage over Spotify,” noting “Apple Music should sound better than Spotify for many listeners,” though the reviewer praised Spotify for being easier to navigate and for offering custom features like Spotify Wrapped. Apple Music still offers some advanced audio features Spotify does not, like its spatial audio feature, which makes audio feel like it’s coming from all directions.
The lossless audio feature is Spotify’s latest notable update, coming weeks after it announced users will be able to message one another on the Spotify app to recommend songs, podcasts or audiobooks. Earlier in August, Spotify rolled out a feature allowing users to create their own transitions between songs in their playlists.
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