Spotify adds lossless streaming after 8 years of teasing

It’s been a long time coming, but Spotify is finally getting lossless audio. Rumors have been circulating about a high-fidelity offering since as early as 2017. In 2021, Spotify claimed it was “coming later this year.” And by May of 2024, it was “almost ready.” So, when rumors started picking up again in June of this year, they were met with skepticism, especially amid announcements over the launch of features nobody was asking for, like direct messaging.

Well, it’s here. For real. And there’s some good news — lossless won’t be confined to a new higher-priced tier. There’s no new Spotify HiFi membership or Music Pro subscription. Instead lossless audio will be rolling out to all Premium subscribers in 50 markets (starting with Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, the US, and the UK) over the next two months. Spotify confirmed that it will not be changing its prices as part of the feature rollout.

There shouldn’t be any guessing, either. Spotify says subscribers should receive a notification in the app as lossless becomes available to them. You’ll then be able to head into your settings and enable lossless from the media quality menu. And if you’re actively listening to lossless audio, there will be an indicator in the Now Playing bar and via the Connect Picker for compatible hardware. To start, that will include devices from Sony, Bose, Samsung, and Sennheiser, with Sonos and Amazon support expected to be added next month.

There is a catch, however. Spotify’s lossless option tops out at 24-bit / 44.1 kHz FLAC. Apple Music, Tidal, and Qobuz all offer HiRes FLAC support at up to 24-bit / 192 kHz. Granted, once you start entering 24-bit FLAC territory, it can get pretty hard to tell the difference unless you’re a particularly demanding audiophile with a sound system priced in the same range as a used sedan. But it does leave room for Spotify to add on one of those rumored “deluxe” tiers to squeeze a bit more money out of.

This leaves YouTube as the only major streaming music service (and I’m using the term “major” loosely here) that doesn’t support lossless streaming. And, there’s been no indication from Google that it’s going to change its tune anytime soon.

Updated September 10th: Added confirmation of pricing from Spotify.