Spotify Lossless Explained for Producers

For reference, that puts Spotify level with Tidal, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Qobuz and Deezer on the CD-quality tier. Spotify caps at 44.1 kHz, where Apple Music and Qobuz go further into hi-res (up to 24-bit/192 kHz), but for streaming over real-world gear the 44.1 kHz ceiling is rarely the limiting factor, the playback chain is.

Does Spotify Lossless change how you master?

Short answer: no. Loudness normalization is format-agnostic, so Spotify applies the same gain to the lossless stream as it does to the lossy one. A master that integrates at -8 LUFS still gets turned down to about -14 LUFS on playback, and a quiet -18 LUFS master still gets turned up. Going lossless does not let a louder master win, and it does not move the target.

What does change is exposure. A 320 kbps codec smears fine detail and can mask small problems: a slightly crunchy limiter, a harsh de-esser, low-level noise in a tail. FLAC hands the listener exactly what you printed, artifacts and all. The cleaner your master, the more lossless rewards you; the sloppier it is, the more it exposes you.

Before you upload, check where your master actually sits. Our LUFS meter shows integrated loudness, true peak, and loudness range, so you can confirm you are near the -14 LUFS zone with a -1 dBTP ceiling, the same targets whether the listener is on the lossy or the lossless stream. For the full picture on the unit itself, read what LUFS means.

How to turn on Spotify Lossless

Lossless is opt-in and set per device, so enabling it on your phone does nothing for your laptop or your Connect speaker. You need Spotify Premium; it is not on the free tier.

1. Open Spotify and go to Settings and Privacy.
2. Tap Media Quality.
3. Set the quality to Lossless for Wi-Fi, Cellular, and Downloads, which are three separate switches.
4. Repeat on every device, including Spotify Connect speakers, since the setting does not sync across them.

Lossless needs roughly 1.5-2 Mbps of bandwidth, about 0.7-0.9 GB per hour of continuous listening, so it is worth leaving the cellular switch lower if you are watching a data cap.

Will your listeners even hear the difference?

Honestly, often not. Hearing 320 kbps versus FLAC takes a quiet room, a decent DAC and headphones or monitors, and material with real dynamic range and high-frequency detail. Over standard Bluetooth the audio is re-compressed by the codec (SBC or AAC) after it leaves Spotify, which caps the quality before it reaches the earbud regardless of the lossless setting.

The practical upside for you is on the production side: you can now A/B your own master in the same fidelity an engaged listener gets, instead of judging it through a lossy proxy. If you mix on monitors, reference your master on a wired lossless chain before you sign off.

What it means for artists and engineers

• No re-upload. Tracks already on Spotify become lossless automatically from the source file; there is no separate lossless version to deliver.
• Deliver high-resolution. Give your distributor the best file you have, 24-bit at 44.1 kHz or higher, rather than an MP3 or a pre-dithered bounce, so the source behind the stream is as clean as possible.
• Don't chase loudness. Normalization still flattens levels, so a hot master just loses transients without getting any louder on playback.

If you hand finished masters to clients or labels, this is a good moment to tighten how you deliver them. A streamable preview plus a gated final download in a delivery Room keeps the high-resolution file controlled until the track is approved.