Spotify has officially announced the rollout of lossless audio streaming to its Premium subscribers after years of anticipation. The feature will be available in 50 markets over the next two months.
The rollout will begin with countries like Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, the US, and the UK. Unlike earlier speculation suggesting a separate, higher-priced tier, Spotify confirmed that lossless audio will be included in the existing Premium subscription at no additional cost. Subscribers will receive an in-app notification when the feature becomes available in their region, allowing them to enable it through the media quality settings.
Spotify’s lossless streaming will support 24-bit / 44.1 kHz FLAC quality. A lossless indicator will be visible in the Now Playing bar and the Connect Picker when using compatible hardware. Initial compatible devices include those from Sony, Bose, Samsung, and Sennheiser, with Sonos and Amazon devices expected to gain support next month.
While Spotify’s lossless quality is a significant upgrade, it is worth noting that competitors like Apple Music, Tidal, and Qobuz offer higher resolution audio, up to 24-bit / 192 kHz. However, Spotify’s offering addresses a long-standing request from users seeking higher fidelity audio without incurring extra charges.
The addition of lossless audio to Spotify leaves YouTube Music as the only major streaming platform without lossless support, and there are no current indications that Google plans to implement it. Spotify confirmed on September 10th that the introduction of lossless streaming would not affect the current pricing structure for Premium subscribers.
