Spotify’s popularity is well deserved. The streaming service has always been the easiest music service to get started and live with.
It has an excellent curation of playlists, even better recommendations, and the app works on practically every platform. But sound quality has never been its forte.
For years, Spotify has streamed music using compressed formats even when other platforms moved on to lossless streaming.
These compressed formats function by removing parts of the recording, parts you think you wouldn’t hear, to keep file sizes smaller. However, the tradeoff is that there is invariably a loss of details.
The results still sounded decent, but with services like Apple Music and Tidal moving ahead by offering lossless audio that preserved the full recording quality, if you cared about audio quality, Spotify was definitely the weaker option. But that gap is closing.
Spotify’s newer lossless streaming option delivers music using higher quality, uncompressed files that preserve the original recording instead of compressing it.
Instead of trimming away audio data to reach file size requirements, these full-fat files include everything the artist intended.
Turning it on takes seconds with the option sitting right there in the audio quality settings, and when enabled, Spotify begins streaming tracks in lossless quality provided your connection allows it.
When I first switched on the feature, I didn’t expect a massive improvement in quality. But the difference is in the details.
After listening to lossless Spotify for a while, it’s pretty clear to me that the platform now delivers music with more clarity and texture than ever before.
What lossless audio changes in music
Subtle improvements that you notice over time
The improvement from lossless streaming is generally subtle. You’re not going to notice a night and day difference, but the differences are consistently noticeable.
Compressed audio works by removing bits and pieces of the sound that algorithms assume most listeners will not notice. This keeps files smaller at the cost of detail.
Higher frequencies can lose detail, instrument separation can suffer, and quieter sections of a recording often blur into a mess. That’s not the case with lossless audio.
Instrument separation is where you notice this first. Instruments that previously blended together now sit noticeably separated within the auditory space.
Guitar layers may feel more distinct, and percussion will have a hint of more texture. Small details like reverb last just a smidgen longer in the mix.
It’s not about music sounding louder or more dramatic; that’s rarely the case. You’ll only notice that it feels more open and natural.
You might not notice the differences as much with metal or heavy electronic music, but acoustic recordings and jazz certainly exhibit the differences better.
The sense of space, be it the breath of an artist right before he blows a trumpet or just the brush of a hand against a guitar string, all of that becomes more noticeable.
These differences are easier to hear if you have the right equipment on hand, and I’d go as far as saying that quality wired headphones, earphones, or speakers are a pre-requisite.
Bluetooth has its own additional compression that nullifies many of the advantages.
Lossless without losing Spotify’s best features
Quality and flexibility to suit all needs
The best aspect of Spotify’s lossless streaming is that it doesn’t require you to change how you use the service, nor do you lose any functionality, including Spotify Connect.
I use Spotify Connect all day long to play music on my streaming devices, and with Spotify Lossless enabled, I can do the same, except in uncompressed quality on my devices.
Meanwhile, the recommendation engine continues surfacing fresh music tuned to my taste. No changes to the process, just improved audio quality.
Elsewhere, I like that Spotify lets you swap audio quality based on your connection.
I’ve set it to only stream uncompressed music over my Wi-Fi connection. When I’m out and about, a high-quality compressed stream tends to be enough.
File sizes for uncompressed audio are just too large to accommodate in my data plan and if I’m listening over Bluetooth as I usually am on-the-go, there’s no benefit to be had.
This flexibility extends to downloads as well, where you can configure the quality level at which you want to download your music. I keep a few of my favorite playlists offline on my phone, and I’ve set it to grab the music at lossless quality.
With the settings configured, usually you won’t have to dive in and change anything else. Just stick to playing your music. It plays into Spotify’s biggest strength, which is convenience.
A great starting point to pay more attention to the music you listen to
I know I claimed that I’m an audiophile, but truth be told, that’s probably not true. There’s a long journey of discovering new hardware and nuance in audio still.
But with Spotify’s lossless quality tier, I’m better positioned to start appreciating those quality differences as part of my listening experience.
Music now sounds more detailed with a wider soundstage and noticeable subtlety and texture.
More importantly, I used to think that I was doing my music listening a disservice by sticking with Spotify. Now, with lossless quality available, that’s no longer the case.
