Music streaming has become essential to many people’s daily lives. We’re no longer content with simply listening to music; we also want the music to be high-quality. If you’re a Spotify user, you may notice that it doesn’t have lossless audio options as other services do, such as Apple Music or Tidal. However, there are still effective methods to enhance your listening experiences with Spotify. The following techniques can help improve your Spotify audio quality. For the best results, you may use them in combination.
Spotify web player is a convenient tool to access your music library at once. Just go to spotify.com and sign in to your account to start. However, the web player does not support audio quality adjustments, limiting free users to enjoy up to 128kbps AAC and Premium users to 256kbps.
On the other hand, the Spotify app offers options for higher quality. If you want to enhance the Spotify sound quality, use the Spotify app on your device, which is available on various devices including Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Smart TVs, game consoles, and more.
Spotify Premium subscribers enjoy high audio quality up to 320kbps, while the highest audio quality of Spotify Free is 160kbps. Therefore, upgrading to Spotify Premium is an easy and quick way to significantly improve your Spotify audio. Once subscribed, switch to “Very High” to get 320kbps right away.
Spotify provides Individual ($11.99/month), Duo ($16.99/month), Family ($19.99/month), and Student ($5.99/month)plans for the paid tier. Find the plan that suits you best to sign up.
Spotify offers different sound quality options for both Free and Premium users with the app. To have the best quality, set the audio quality to “High (up to 160kbps)” for Free account and “Very High (up to 320kbps)” for Premium. You can also set the download quality, streaming quality for WiFi and cellular data (on mobile). Here is how you can set the highest audio quality of Spotify with the mobile and desktop apps.
Auto Adjust Quality is a commonly used feature across various music and video streaming platforms. It automatically chooses the streaming quality according to your internet speed to ensure smooth entertainment experiences.
However, if you want to maintain the best audio quality on Spotify, it is recommended to turn Auto Adjust Quality off. Then you can stream all the music at the highest quality. Keep in mind that you may encounter interruptions during listening if your network bandwidth is insufficient.
Here’s how you can disable Auto Adjust Quality on Spotify:
Data saving will lower the streaming quailty to minimize data usage when you’re on cellular data. If audio quality is your priority, you can disable Data Saver on Spotify. Otherwise, keep it enabled or set it to Automatic to save more data.
Volume normalization balances soft and loud songs to create a consistent volume level across different tracks. However, it often achieves this by reducing the dynamic range of songs, which can affect the audio quality of the music. Generally, it is recommended to turn “Volume Normalization” off for better sound quality.
On the other hand, there’s an argument that Spotify’s normalization has improved and might only impact audio quality on the “Loud” setting, which will be covered in the next part of this guide.
Here’s how you can disable Volume Normalization on Spotify:
If you prefer to turn on Volume Normalization, Spotify offers Volume level options for you to choose from: Loud, Normal, and Quiet. This feature is available for both Free and Premium users on desktop, but exclusive to Premium on the mobile app.
Volume Level helps you adjust the music volume to surroundings. When in a noisy environment, setting the Volume Level to “Loud” can hear better. However, it may affect the audio quality by reducing the dynamic range – the difference between the quietest and loudest parts of the music. For better sound on Spotify, set the Volume level to “Normal” or “Quiet” to maintain the original quality. Here’s how:
When listening to podcasts, Mono Audio might be helpful as it combines all audio signals into a single channel to improve voice clarity. However, modern music overwhelmingly uses stereo audio, with two or more channels to create a sense of space and directionality. In essence, disabling mono audio on Spotify allows you to experience the fullness and spatial detail of the music, leading to a significant improvement in audio quality.
To Turn Off Mono Audio on Spotify:
Spotify offer an built-in Equalizer feature for you to adjust the levels of bass and treble in music and podcasts. It can correct imbalances where certain frequencies are too dominant or too weak or due to your listening environment. You can also use the Equalizer to adjust the sound to your own listening tastes. If you’re unsure how to adjust the Equalizer, Spotify provides presets like “Base booster” and “Classical” that can be applied directly.
Find Equalizer on Spotify
Spotify Connect allows you to control Spotify playback on another device or an internet streaming player, such as a Lumin or Bluesound. These network streamers, streaming amplifiers, or DACs (Digital-to-Analog Converters) can connect directly to Spotify and play music through your home audio system. This direct streaming path, where your phone or computer serves only as a controller, bypasses your mobile device or computer’s audio processing and can lead to better audio quality.
Lumin primarily targets the audiophile and high-end audio market, while Bluesound aims for a broader audience looking for high-quality audio solutions that are more accessible in terms of price.
Spotify Premium users can download music for offline listening. You can use the method mentioned above to set the download quality as “Very High” to get the best offline listening experiences. However, these downloads are limited to the Spotify app, and you cannot listen to them on other devices or players.
However, with Pazu Spotify Converter, you can download Spotify music and podcasts with any account type, Free or Premium. It can save Spotify songs at the original quality up to 320kbps while preserving all metadata. You can choose to download in various formats (MP3, M4A, AIFF, WAV, FLAC, AAC) on Windows and Mac. Then you can transfer them to any supported device and enjoy offline.
Note: The free trial version of Pazu Spotify Converter allows you to convert the first three minutes of each track. Upgrade to the full version for unlimited conversions.
Download and convert any Spotify songs, albums, playlists to MP3/M4A etc.