The wait is over: Spotify launches lossless audio after years in the making

Spotify has finally launched lossless audio — for now, available only to Spotify Premium listeners in select markets — to significantly improve its audio quality.

Rumors about the new feature have been circulating since 2017, with the company putting the release off a few times over the years. But it’s finally here, after months of rumors and speculation.

“The wait is finally over; we’re so excited lossless sound is rolling out to Premium subscribers,” said Gustav Gyllenhammar, VP Subscriptions, 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.”

Spotify has long been criticized for having lower music quality than its direct competitors, such as Apple and Amazon Music, but now its offering should be on par with streaming giants.

Lossless offers users an opportunity to stream tracks in up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC, “in the highest quality”. They will also be able to choose between Low, Normal, High, Very High, and now Lossless music quality for data usage optimization.

Users will need to enable Lossless manually on each device, with the indicator appearing in the Now Playing view or bar and via the Connect Picker when the feature is on.

Earlier reports suggested that Spotify might hide its Lossless offering behind a higher subscription tier, but the feature will be rolling out to its Premium users on September 10th in 50 markets. Initially, they will include Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, the US, and the UK.

The feature arrives just weeks after Spotify launched its direct messaging, supposed to make music sharing easier. However, users started noticing weird things, such as their identities being exposed across the internet whenever they share a song.

The important question that many are asking is whether Lossless and direct messaging will one day become part of a new ‘Super Premium’ tier on Spotify. Currently, there are reports that Spotify is hoping to roll out its new Music Pro tier late this year, with prices for Music Pro expected to vary by geography, according to Bloomberg.