Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Lossless audio is coming to Spotify. Lossless audio offers a more accurate and dynamic sound. The feature is slowly rolling out to all users with a paid plan. In 2021, Spotify teased the idea of a high-fidelity tier (hi-fi tier) that would offer lossless audio quality. Unfortunately, licensing issues caused the plan to be put on the back burner. Also: This new Spotify feature almost made me ditch Apple Music - but iOS 26 changed my mind However, there have been hints of the plan actually coming to fruition, thanks to code hints within the app. Music lovers can rejoice because the company is about to finally introduce support for 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC-level streaming. How lossless music works on Spotify This particular format shrugs off compression to deliver a higher-level audio quality, which means users will hear CD-quality music. In other words, lossless music retains all of the original data from a recording to provide higher-quality sound compared to lossy formats, such as MP3. Apple and Amazon Music have offered lossless for some time, and now it's Spotify's turn. Also: The best MP3 players of 2025 Spotify will be rolling the new feature out to users in over 50 countries through October, and subscribers in Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, the US, and the UK already have access to the feature. Lossless playback requires a paid plan, and those users will be notified when the feature is available to them. How to enable lossless playback on Spotify Once lossless is available, users will have to manually enable the feature for all of their devices, both desktop and mobile. To enable it on the mobile app, go to Settings & Privacy > Media Quality and select Lossless. If you don't see Lossless in Media Quality, it means the feature has yet to reach your account. Give it time, and Spotify will notify you when it has arrived. Also: 6 easy ways to identify a song using your Android phone Do keep in mind that lossless playback consumes a considerable amount of bandwidth, so you might want to avoid it on your mobile device (unless connected to a wireless network). As well, lossless playback is not generally supported by Bluetooth, which means you'll need to have a wired pair of headphones or traditional desktop or floor speakers to enjoy the higher-quality audio. Read the full Spotify announcement to learn more about the upcoming feature.