Spotify’s lossless audio is finally here, and it’s free for Premium subscribers

Spotify users are finally getting the long-promised lossless audio upgrade, and the best part is that it doesn’t cost a rupee more, if you’re a Premium user that is. The update comes after years of vague timelines and false starts.

CD-quality tunes without a subscription bump

The lossless audio is being rolled out in FLAC format to Premium subscribers across over 50 countries. It’s already live in the US, UK, Australia, Germany, Japan, and a bunch of others, and it’ll keep expanding through October. If you’re on the free tier though, tough luck, since this one’s Premium-only.

FLAC is an open-source format that doesn’t ditch any audio data, letting you stream music in up to 24-bit depth at 44.1 kHz sample rate. In other words, your music is going to sound as close to the original studio recording as your headphones (and ears) allow. Spotify also says it covers “nearly every song” on the platform.

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When lossless does roll out for you, you’ll see a prompt when you launch the app. Just navigate to Settings & Privacy -> Media Quality to turn it on for Wi-Fi, mobile, and downloads.

You’ll also see a new Lossless badge show up while you’re listening, assuming you’re using a supported device. That includes phones, desktops, tablets, and hardware from the likes of Sony, Bose, Sennheiser, Samsung, and Yamaha.

Bluetooth won’t give you the full effect, though as the tech simply doesn’t have the bandwidth. So for top-tier audio, Spotify suggests using wired headphones or casting over Wi-Fi with Spotify Connect.