Spotify launches lossless audio for premium users

Spotify has launched a new lossless high-quality audio service for premium subscribers.

The new listening experience, which allows users to listen to tracks up to 24-bit and 44.1 kilohertz (kHz) FLAC, arrived in the US yesterday (September 10) and is set to be rolled out in over 50 countries in October.

“The wait is finally over; we’re so excited lossless sound is rolling out to premium subscribers,” said vice president of subscriptions Gustav Gyllenhammar. “We’ve taken 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.”

In order to access lossless audio, users need to tap their profile icon in the top left of the Spotify app, go to settings and privacy, select media quality, and then choose where they want to enable lossless audio.

Notifications will be sent out to users once the new feature becomes available in their market.

Other streaming services, including Apple, have previously launched lossless audio.

It comes despite artists like King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard recently announcing they would be pulling their music from the streaming platform, along with Xiu Xiu and Deerhoof, over founder Daniel Ek’s funding of investment company, Prima Materia, which invested over €600million (£519million) in Helsing, a Munich-based company creating drones and artificial intelligence for military operations.

King Gizzard have since put their albums up on Bandcamp, allowing fans to name their price after withdrawing from Spotify.

Elsewhere earlier this year, Cradle Of Filth frontman Dani Filth criticised the platform, saying he “owes it” to other musicians not to have an account, while Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante described streaming as the place “where music goes to die”.

The streaming platform also received criticism after it officially demonetised all songs on the platform with less than 1,000 streams – making it harder for artists to generate royalties from their music and restricting new artists looking to crack the music industry.

The post Spotify launches lossless audio for premium users appeared first on NME.