A highly anticipated new feature has finally arrived at Spotify, which allows premium subscribers to listen to their favourite music in significantly higher quality.
It's being rolled out to premium listeners in select markets and users will receive a notification when it becomes available to them. According to Spotify, it's already been rolled out in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and the UK.
Lossless delivers the highest quality audio on Spotify, allowing users to stream playlists in up to 24-bit/44,1 kHz FLAC. Songs are streamed using an open-source compression algorithm that provides playback without losing any data from the original recording.
'The wait is finally over; we're so excited lossless sound is rolling out to Premium subscribers,' said Gustav Gyllenhammar, vice president of subscriptions at Spotify. 'We've take time to build this feature in a way that prioritises 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.'
Lossless is one of Spotify's most highly requested features. Users will now have custom settings for Wi-Fi, cellular and downloads and can choose between low, normal, high, very high and lossless. They will also be able to see how much data each setting requires.
The new feature is available on mobile, desktop and tablet as well as devices that support Spotify Connect, including Sony, Bose, Samsung, Sennheiser and more.
To enable lossless in the app, users should tap their profile icon on the top left, go to settings and privacy and then to media quality and select where they want to enable lossless audio. The feature needs to be enabled manually and once selected the indicator will appear in the 'now playing' view or bar.
For the smoothest experience, Spotify recommends streaming lossless music on Wi-Fi using wired headphones or speakers on a non-Bluetooth connection. Bluetooth does not currently provide enough bandwidth to transmit lossless audio.
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK. She covers news and features across celebrity, culture and entertainment. Nikki also works as a freelance news reporter for the i and has written for i-D, CORQ Studio and various New Statesman Media Group titles.