Spotify adds lossless audio to Premium across more than 50 markets

Spotify began rolling out lossless audio to Premium subscribers on Sept. 10, with the company saying the feature will reach users in more than 50 markets through October, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Germany. The rollout brings a long-promised upgrade to stream quality to the company’s core paid tier at no additional cost, Spotify said, and users will receive in-app notifications when Lossless becomes available to them.

Spotify said nearly every song on the platform will be available in Lossless and will carry a clearly labeled Lossless symbol. The company supports up to 24-bit, 44.1 kHz FLAC playback, which it describes as higher resolution than standard streaming and CD-quality audio. An audio editor who reviewed the format noted that 24-bit, 44.1 kHz is technically superior to CD-quality audio, which is typically 16-bit, 44.1 kHz.

Premium subscribers can enable Lossless manually in the app’s Media Quality settings, and Spotify cautioned that the setting must be turned on for each device. When Lossless is active, an indicator will appear in the Now Playing view and the Connect Picker. The feature is available on mobile, desktop and tablet and...