Spotify has finally rolled out lossless streaming for Premium members, a meaningful step up in sound quality for one of the world’s biggest music services.
Announced on September 10, 2025, the new option delivers up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC streams, bringing a richer, more detailed presentation that rivals CD-grade audio. The release began in select markets, including the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Sweden—and is slated to reach more than 50 countries by October, according to Spotify’s newsroom update.
The move arrives eight years after Spotify first teased hi-fi audio back in 2017. Premium users will see an in-app prompt when their account gets access, and notably, there’s no extra charge, an about-face from earlier rumors of a separate “HiFi” tier. There are limits, though: not every track has a lossless version yet, and podcasts, audiobooks, plus some songs still stream at lower quality, as developers have observed in app references.
Behind the curtain, this upgrade wasn’t trivial. In a Reddit AMA summarized by NotebookCheck, a Spotify engineering lead outlined the challenge of shipping FLAC reliably at massive scale while supporting a huge array of devices—from phones to smart speakers. The decision to target 24-bit/44.1 kHz is a pragmatic balance: noticeably higher fidelity than lossy streaming without the extreme bandwidth demands of even higher-resolution formats that could bog down mobile connections.
Early reactions on X have leaned positive, with listeners praising the “crystal-clear” sound on catalog staples—from Taylor Swift to The Beatles—and celebrating the end of a long wait. The general mood: familiar tracks sound more alive, with less of the softening and artifacts associated with compression.
Hands-on impressions echo that sentiment, albeit with nuance. The Verge describes the upgrade as clearly superior to a standard Spotify stream, citing tighter bass and cleaner highs. Still, the leap from Spotify’s existing “high quality” setting (320 kbps AAC) can be subtle, and the benefits are most obvious with capable gear—think wired headphones, quality DACs, or Bluetooth sets that support LDAC. On everyday earbuds, the difference may be less dramatic.
There’s a practical trade-off: data use. Lossless can chew through roughly 15–20 MB per minute, as What Hi-Fi? notes, which isn’t ideal on metered mobile plans. Spotify has built in a toggle, clear quality labels, and automatic switching based on connection strength to make the experience smoother for real-world use.
Strategically, this helps Spotify close the gap with Apple Music and Tidal, both long active in the lossless space. As Pitchfork points out, it addresses a lingering criticism of Spotify’s sonic ceiling and could keep audiophile-leaning users from jumping ship. Even so, limitations remain: some hardware tops out at 16-bit playback, and Spotify Connect support for lossless is narrow to start. Users in countries outside the initial wave have also expressed understandable frustration with the phased rollout.
Looking forward, Spotify has hinted at more premium audio features on the horizon—potentially higher bitrates or spatial audio—guided by feedback from beta tests that emphasized simplicity, per TechCrunch. In day-to-day use, enabling lossless is handled in the app’s settings, and a diamond icon confirms high-fidelity playback is active. For many, the change won’t revolutionize listening—but it finally delivers on a long-standing promise and nudges Spotify from a convenience-first service toward one that also caters to more discerning ears.
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