Spotify HiFi (Lossless): what you get and what you don’t

Spotify streams up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC to Premium subscribers, rolled out to more than 50 markets including Germany and Austria by October 2025, with no surcharge. FLAC is lossless compression: it decodes to exactly the same audio as the original file, so 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC and a WAV of the same master sound identical. What Spotify does not offer is higher sample rates — Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, TIDAL and Qobuz go up to 192 kHz.

Lossless is off by default. In the app open your profile → Settings & privacy → Media quality and choose Lossless for Wi-Fi, mobile data and/or downloads; you have to do this on every device. A “Lossless” badge then appears in Now Playing.

Bluetooth headphones and speakers cannot carry it: Spotify itself notes that Bluetooth lacks the bandwidth, so the signal is compressed again before transmission. To hear the difference you need wired headphones, a USB DAC, or a Spotify Connect speaker on Wi-Fi.

If you want your whole library in better quality, Spotify Lossless is the easy upgrade you already pay for. Artyfile Stream answers a different question: it streams the label Artyfile’s own 850+ recordings — orchestral, cinematic, classical, pop covers and folk, played by real musicians — as the uncompressed WAV studio master, at 44.1 or 48 kHz and up to 24-bit, and pays the rights holders at least €0.03 per counted stream. Use it next to Spotify for the recordings where provenance and fair pay matter.