Lossless on Spotify Premium is finally here, ending one of the protracted tech announcements in history. It’s finally on the way to a wireless speaker or mobile device near you.
Rumored to be known as Spotify Music Pro or Supremium, Spotify first said it was working on it all the way back in February 2021. The high-quality streams would, the company said, be “rolling out in select markets” later that year. We even got an ad for it featuring Billie Eilish and everything. But afterwards, there was a defening silence.
“The wait is finally over: we’re so excited lossless sound is rolling out to Premium subscribers.” said Gustav Gyllenhammar, head of subscriptions at Spotify.
“We’ve taken time to build this feature in a way that prioritizes quality, ease of use, and clarity at every step, so you always know what’s happening under the hood. With Lossless, our premium users will now have an even better listening experience.”
Lossless on Spotify Premium offers up to 24bit/44.1kHz FLAC audio and predictably Spotify says you should stream the much larger files over Wi-Fi with wired headphones or speakers rather than using Bluetooth that will compress it.
There will be customisation, so you can choose whether to stream in Lossless over Wi-Fi, cellular or for downloads. You can choose between Low, Normal, High, Very High, and now Lossless music quality. Spotify says: “You’ll see clear prompts and explanations so you always know exactly what you’re hearing, including reminders around data usage, redownloading tracks in Lossless, and flagging when there are weak connections.”
You can also use the excellent Spotify Connect to play the lossless audio on another compatible speaker. Currently, this includes wireless speakers from Bluesound, Bose, Denon/Marantz and Yamaha. Spotify says that Sonos will be supported in the coming weeks, which is a must. Amazon (presumably with the Echo Studio) support is also on the way.
Lossless on Spotify Premium will roll out gradually to more than 50 countries between now and the end of October. Access has already started to become available to subscribers in Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, the US, and the UK.
The company has clearly been toying with how it might brand or ship the service amid rumors that it would cost $19,99 a month for an upgraded Supremium tier. The problem is that competition is strong, particularly from Apple, and so Spotify has obviously decided the best way to adopt Lossless is to bundle it with Premium.
Premium users will receive a notification once Lossless becomes available to them.
How to enable Lossless on Spotify Premium
- Tap your profile icon in the top left corner and go to settings and privacy → media quality
- You’ll see the option to enable Lossless streaming quality for Wi-Fi, cellular, and downloads
- You’ll be able to see how much data each of these requires to make choosing easier.
- While Lossless is available across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices, as well as on many devices using Spotify Connect, you’ll need to manually select Lossless for each device.
- You’ll know Lossless is on because the Lossless indicator will appear in the Now Playing view or bar and via the Connect Picker.
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