Lossless audio
Lossless audio lets listeners stream music in a format that preserves the full quality of the original recording.
It's available for eligible Spotify Premium listeners.
What is lossless audio?
Lossless audio files keep all the data from the original master.
Compressed audio removes some data to reduce file size, but lossless formats maintain full audio fidelity.
Lossless playback affects sound quality, not loudness. We still apply loudness normalization to balance volume across tracks — regardless of format.
Learn more about loudness normalization
Who hears lossless audio on Spotify?
Listeners with an eligible Premium plan and supported hardware hear the lossless version.
All other listeners hear a high-quality compressed version.
We automatically choose the best playback format based on the listener’s setup. You don’t need to deliver separate versions of your tracks.
Learn more about eligible Premium plans
Delivering lossless audio files
You only need to deliver one high-quality stereo master per track.
We strongly prefer the Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) format for audio delivery, which is delivered losslessly to eligible listeners.
We also accept Waveform Audio File Format (WAV) files under the same specs, though we prefer FLAC.