Spotify App Code Reveals An Inbound Feature That Is Music To Audiophiles' Ears
The findings come from several app code sleuths, but the most detailed report is that of the X account of the Spicetify project -- a CLI tool for customizing the Spotify client -- with several screenshots illustrating the new features. The big one is the availability of lossless streaming at up to 24-bit/44.1-KHz via the FLAC and Widevine codecs. According to Spicetify, the feature will also be available on on Spotify Connect, the Web Player, and in the downloads section. Additionally, there's a new "conect to device" feature that enables lossless streaming to devices via wireless connectivity, and what appears to be a new headphone optimization feature.
The new features in the flesh. Source: Spicetify project.
These findings come an entire four years after Spotify first mentioned lossless playback, and quite honestly, it's always been a glaring omission for what is by far the largest music streaming platform, especially considering it's added other features of questionable utility. Streaming audio has never been a particularly bandwidth-intensive affair, so even those with slow connections can enjoy it, so long as their data plan isn't exceedingly small. According to a recent interview, Spotify's Alex Norstrom recently told investors that the company was investing in more premium tiers, and Bloomberg previously reported that a Music Pro tier would be launching late in 2025 with high-quality streaming and remixing features.
Having original sound tracks played back to you is always a good thing, but part of the reason for Spotify being so late to the lossless party is probably the fact that the highest audio quality setting in the app already offers darn good results. I'm a subscriber myself and help a friend with his studio masters, and mixes, and have successfully done a few A/B challenges. The difference between current contemporary high-quality codecs and lossless tracks ranges from minimal to audibly non-existent. Moreover, there are some comments in threads about this topic dissing Spotify's 24-bit/44.1-KHz streams, stating that Apple Music, Tidal, and other services offer higher rates, while forgetting that nearly the entire catalog of published masters are 16-bit/44.1-KHz (CD quality), and upsampling the source doesn't magically make the audio better.
