What is Spotify Lossless Listening?
Spotify Lossless Listening is, in basic terms, the new, shinier kid on the streaming block. It lets you play music in nearly uncompressed, high-resolution audio, using the 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC format.
If regular Spotify audio was a well-tuned radio station, Lossless is your private, velvet-draped concert hall. Engineers like Jack Mason describe it as the ultimate way to listen: you’re hearing exactly what’s delivered to Spotify, with nothing lost in between, all the little details preserved, every breath and brush in the original recording hanging in the air.
That’s not just marketing. Unlike standard streaming, which takes out bits to save space and stream bandwidth (think of slicing off some chocolate to fit in a smaller box), lossless audio squeezes all the original song’s musical content into a manageable file size, but without cutting anything out.
It’s still compressed, but “compressed” like vacuum-packing, not like chopping. Seriously, flip between regular and lossless on a halfway-decent pair of wired headphones, and you’ll catch sounds and feelings, subtle bass, faint background guitar, you didn’t register before. Sometimes I think I hear ghosts. Or maybe that’s just really good production.
How To Enable Lossless Audio on Spotify?
It’s pretty simple, once it’s rolled out to you (and assuming your app is updated). Just so you don’t spend 30 minutes hunting menus like I did, here’s the process in human terms:
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Open Spotify (on mobile, tablet, or desktop, yes, it works everywhere, assuming you're Premium).
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Tap the profile icon: Top left. Usually just your avatar or initials.
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Go to ‘Settings & Privacy’ and scroll to ‘Media Quality.’
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You’ll see settings for Wi-Fi, cellular, and downloads. Under each, there’s now a “Lossless” option, alongside “Normal,” “High,” and “Very High.”
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Flip Lossless on wherever you like. Tip: Try Wi-Fi first for smoother streaming.
That “Lossless” indicator? Look for a little badge near the track title or in the media bar, or poke around in the Connect Picker. You do need to manually set it for each device, so don’t be confused if your phone sounds extra lush but your laptop doesn’t.
And, pro tip, wired headphones or a good amp are your best friend here. Bluetooth isn’t quite up to the bandwidth, so while you can play lossless, your wireless buds are still compressing the stream before it hits your ears.
(I learned this after excitedly playing Miles Davis on an ancient Bluetooth speaker: sounded... fine. Swapped to cheap wired buds, suddenly realized the sax solo was telling me secrets.)
When is Lossless Listening available on Spotify?
Spotify started rolling Lossless out on September 10, 2025, but only in select countries at first. If you’re in Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, the US, or the UK, you might already have it.
The rest of the world gets it in phases, aiming for more than 50 countries through October. If you’re anxiously refreshing your app (been there), just sit tight for the notification.
Spotify wants to do it right, so they’re pacing the rollout to make sure the feature doesn’t break your phone, crash your playlists, or make your data bill cry. But yeah, it’s slightly funny to think high-res music is traveling the globe more slowly than memes.
Is Spotify Premium Required for Lossless Audio Quality?
Absolutely. Lossless Listening is strictly a Spotify Premium feature, not for Free-tier listeners swooping in for day-old Top 40 hits. You’ll need an active Individual Premium plan, which, as of the update, runs at $11.99/month in the US.
If you’re on Family or Student plans, expect a similar process, just verify the eligibility. Also, don’t look for this in podcasts or audiobooks, for now, lossless is music-only. (Spotify engineer John Cieslik-Bridgen confirmed it: you won’t get lossless for “My Dad Wrote a Porno.” Sorry.)
Are Podcasts and Audiobooks Included in Spotify's Lossless Listening?
Nope, and honestly, that makes sense. Lossless audio is overkill for most spoken-word content: you’d be streaming hundreds of megabytes just for someone saying “Welcome to my show.”
Music takes the cake because it actually benefits from the richer capture, all those highs and lows, warm analog buzz, and layered harmonies you’d miss on talk radio. So only music is getting these uncompressed streams, at least for now.
If you want crisp true crime or crystal-clear finance tips, you’re still living in the world of regular audio. But hey, maybe one day we’ll hear every sigh in a podcast intro, and my phone will be begging for mercy.
Which Other Music Streaming Platforms Provide Lossless Audio?
Yes, and for some, much earlier than Spotify. Apple Music rolled out Lossless in 2021, and Amazon Music followed in 2019.
Both let paying subscribers stream much of their catalogs at uncompressed or “almost uncompressed” audio quality: that’s FLAC, ALAC, or equivalent formats, depending on the service. So if you’re an audiophile with a foot in every camp, or just a deal seeker, you’ve had options for years.
But Spotify’s strength (and my main reason for sticking around, despite those occasional playlist glitches) is the interface and social discovery. Playlists, weird mixes, personal AI DJ, all those little features.
Lossless just finally closes the one major gap: the sound itself. Now you get the crunchy beats, sharp cymbal hits, and airy vocals without jumping ship.
