Spotify Premium Users Get Lossless Streaming After Years of Delays

Spotify has officially rolled out lossless audio streaming to Premium subscribers after years of delays. The feature, which was first promised in 2021, is gradually becoming available in 50 markets including the US, UK, Australia, and Germany.

Thankfully, Spotify includes lossless streaming at no additional cost for existing Premium members. That's particularly good news, since early rumors suggested Spotify would offer lossless as a higher-priced tier. Not so.

This probably has something to do with the fact that in the intervening years Apple decided to include lossless audio as part of its regular Apple Music subscription at no additional cost. Shortly after, Amazon Music, which previously charged extra for its HD tier, matched the move.

Spotify Premium users will receive in-app notifications when the feature becomes available and can enable it through the media quality settings. A lossless indicator also appears in the Now Playing bar when streaming high-quality audio. Spotify says nearly every song on the streaming service will be available in lossless, with a clearly labelled 'Lossless' symbol.

The service supports 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC files, though this falls short of Apple Music, Tidal, and Qobuz, which offer up to 24-bit/192 kHz. The lossless quality being played also appears in the Connect Picker for compatible hardware, which includes devices from Sony, Bose, Samsung, and Sennheiser at launch, with Sonos and Amazon integration expected next month.

Spotify says the lossless rollout will continue over the next two months across all supported regions. First reports that Spotify was working on a lossless audio version of its streaming service appeared almost eight years ago, when the company started testing the option with a small group of users.