The wait is almost over. Spotify has announced that it is launching the long-anticipated lossless audio feature on its platform. What’s more, this lossless audio format won’t be locked behind a new, more expensive subscription tier.
According to the streaming service, all Premium subscribers will have access to the lossless option. Listeners will receive a notification once lossless is available. To enable the feature, they must first head over to the media quality menu in the settings.
Lossless needs to be manually turned on for individual devices. At the moment, the list of supported hardware includes devices from Sony, Bose, Samsung, and Sennheiser. Moreover, the platform plans on adding Sonos and Amazon next month. An indicator on the Now Playing bar and Connect Picker will appear to let users know that the audio is playing in lossless quality.
It is also worth noting that the lossless option is capped at 24-bit/44.1kHz FLAC. For comparison, Apple Music and Tidal are offering 24-bit/192kHz files. Of course, this could mean that Spotify may add on a pricier subscription tier later, considering its initial plans for a Spotify HiFi way back in 2021.
The feature is gradually rolling out to more than 50 countries through October. That said, lossless is already available in certain regions, namely Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, the US, and the UK.
(Source: Spotify)
