Lossless Listening Arrives on Spotify Premium (for real, this time)

Audio Gear Talk Music Services
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Yes, I hear CarPlay works fairly well. Android Auto is not the same experience, and it’s been an issue ongoing for a long time now, basically since Android Auto has launched. And at this point with such an expensive product that I paid $700 for, it’s unacceptable. So I just really am not happy with Roon, considering the safety issues implicated in that.

If I use Spotify, it just works. Not to mention half the time, I will get out of the car with Roon ARC and music will just start blasting out of my phone speaker and that has never happened once with Spotify or any other app. And I’ve reported this to them and again, almost a year and they haven’t fixed it.

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For me ARC works just super - no problems. Right now using ARC on Mallorca

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Torben

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Same here. It plays all day at work. Only downside I can find is that it likes to drain the battery of my iPhone.

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Yeah, I think the iOS stability is a lot better. Otherwise, Roon server and the Roon desktop clients are rock solid.

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My journey is somewhat similar to David’s – a little more stretched out perhaps. I bought Roon (v1.0, day 1) after a 10 min. trial (app launches: check, endpoints found: check, music playing: check) when it was only a Mac app and a Windows app. It replaced my Sooloos Core (which handsomely paid for Roon Lifetime + a Mac mini) while still playing to all my Sooloos endpoints. There was no iPad app, no RoonServer, no RoonBridge, no Linux. But it worked – and boy, was it a revelation compared to the old Sooloos interface. My usage and ecosystem grew with with Roon: various NUCs with ROCK, various RoonReady endpoints. It all worked problem-free, most of the time.

But most of my listening time is not in the audiophile hours at home. It is during worktime (office), while commuting (car) or travelling (trains, planes & automobiles) or when hiking, running or working out. After dabbling with Apple Music for a while, my family moved to Spotify (having a teenage daughter will do this to you). At first, it was just an OK substitution. After using it for a few months however, things started to gel. Algorithmic autoplay and playlists turned out to be very good. The speed (interface, scrolling, search, playback) was consistently astonishing. Curated, personalized and community-driven playlists were in abundance – and very enjoyable. The mobile app was excellent, with tablet, desktop, watch and CarPlay interfaces not far behind. Connect is seamless – once you get used to every device you pick up immediately offers control of what you are playing, it’s hard to let go.

My evening hours were filled with Roon + Tidal or Qobuz (or both for long stretches of time). Arc worked fine most of the time – but when it did not when trying to start a few tunes quickly (before working out or driving off – or in that stolen 20 mins in between meetings) it started to become annoying fast. Over time, the daylight hours I spent in Spotify started to leak into the evenings – even as every now and then the lossy nature of the tracks was noticeable (or was it?). With the rollout of lossless, all that has become moot.

So here I am – finding myself using Spotify nearly fulltime. I’ve got a few handfuls of local albums not available elsewhere that still reside in Roon, but I have stopped my Tidal and Qobuz subscriptions. Apple Music as well, since I now have lossless that I can actually play in a streaming environment. The cynical ploy of offering Lossless/Highres to gain market advantage/disruption, while making it nearly impossible to play it when streaming (looking at you, AirPlay 2) never sat well with me – even though I remain firmly in their ecosystem.

We’ll see what the future brings. For now, I am very happy in Spotify: exploration and discovery are excellent and fun. For lots of artists outside of the mainstream Spotify bio info exceeds what Roon has to offer. Discographies are mostly clean and fine to use. I miss being able to filter on most played albums (though Stats.FM does a fine job for this) or sorting on release date. There’s a few things I don’t particularly like in the interface, but I can live with the fact that it wasn’t designed for me exclusively.

I’ll keep Roon up & running. If nothing else, I have had more than my money’s worth over the last 10 years – but I’ll keep on top of new steps in this most interesting and rewarding journey.

And play a few local tunes every now and then.

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Thought this might be of interest here:

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Interesting video and I watched it all.

Unfortunately I feel the title of the video is misleading.

It should be “Spotify lossless is not lossless on Windows and Android”

The current title is click bait.

I feel a reviewer like Golden Sound, when making videos like this, should invest in all ways to use the service in question. To not have a Mac &/or iOS device makes the full purpose of the video meaningless in my eyes.

Yes, Spotify needs to look at the bit-perfect side of Spotify Lossless with Android and Windows.

There are a number of issues for me with Spotify;

  1. Money artists get

  2. Daniel Ek’s investment choices

  3. AI content

However, the wife and kids use Spotify and that means a family account.

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Same here, at home I have Spotify’s algorithmic features with my stereo and now finally lossless audio, so there’s really no need to use Roon. When I’m at the office I have Spotify and it’s very convenient on my laptop, or in the car on my phone it just works and I don’t feel like I’m going to get in a car crash trying to use ARC with Android Auto where it’s slow and buggy. A family plan for $20 covers the entire household and just works. I still have Roon for my local files or if something isn’t on Spotify but I don’t really need it. If Roon folded tomorrow I’d use Plexamp for that in a heartbeat.

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I hope team Roon reads this and finally does something about it. I like Roon, but it advertises itself as being rich in meta data while it isn’t. Many of my Tidal albums and artists have no information at all.

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For me I have zero issues with Daniel Ek personally or his investment choices and the AI functionality such as the DJ are awesome. Does Qobuz pay better, yes, but if you really want to support the artist see them live. That is how they make money, merch and tickets. I prefer to keep politics and art seperate.

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While the “see them live” is valid advice for supporting artists that tour, it’s not the panacea it’s often presented as. There are artists that can’t or won’t tour for all kinds of reasons, and music that simply isn’t suitable for live concerts, and those may be worthy of earning something, too.

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Yes, then don’t rent their music lol. Buy physical media. I have a huge vinyl collection. Spotify is convenient and I JUST discovered a new artist I never would have found anywhere else because of their tech. If I were an artist, I’d rather be discovered and get paid less so someone will maybe then like my music so much, buy my album on vinyl and see my show.

They are the 800 lb gorilla and get favorable deals with the labels and use that leverage to build the best tech in the business.

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All of this is ok but it doesn’t let the streaming services and the labels off the hook. They do have a moral obligation

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I respectfully disagree. They are a business. The record labels are a business. It’s all business. They have all have to turn a profit for their shareholders. Streaming is not an ideal way to support an artist one likes either way. It’s a great way to discover and support by more effective means. If I were an unknown artist I’d probably want to be able to leverage something like Spotify to build a following where I can then earn an income from touring.

Like I said I’ve found artists by some other means that I won’t mention here that I NEVER would have found elsewhere and I’ve become a fan for life and gone to multiple concerts. I have one on Tuesday. I never paid for his music in my younger years but I’ve seen him 4 or 5 times live.

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Businesses that can only thrive if they rip off the very people who provide the very things they sell are bound to fail. That’s not specific only to streaming. And being a business doesn’t relieve one from common moral obligations either (or shouldn’t).

Shareholders earning something isn’t more important than artists and certainly isn’t a godgiven right.

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This is indeed a fantastic business. You become a billionaire, with a business model that seems to be unsustainable, while artists are told that streaming is no way to make money. It’s like magic. And we think this is ok?

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One problem with Spotify is that their free tier undercuts what may be a fair remuneration model.

Artists on aggregate may well accept a penny or so per stream, which could be possible from an all-sub model, while furthering their other sources of revenue. But this in isolation isn’t possible when ~ two thirds of Spotify customers are cool with the inferior and free / ad-supported offer.

Music is cheap now, and given this works just fine for most consumers adopting an all-physical / live and merch model is a very very hard sell.

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Yeah, it can be argued that, as long as the player delivers the bits to the endpoint, whatever that is, it’s bit-perfect, so you can’t blame the player for what the endpoint does with them. Also, bit-perfect and lossless are two different things.

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Yeah the video covers my feeling on the topic. Once exclusive mode is implemented, it will fix automatic sample rate switching issue like Roon, Qobuz, and Tidal, at least on desktop.

However, what still baffles me since I first read it…why are they downsampling/resampling all their high res (24/48, 24/96, 24/192) to 24/44.1???

Last time I brought it, I compared it to MQA and I forgot to expand on it. Now sure, MQA was much worse and was lossy LOSSY, in comparison to resampling by Spotify. Still, the reason why it reminds me of MQA is because just like how when MQA came out in 2015ish or so, the reason for it made zero sense to me! Even back then, we had enough bandwidth for streaming lossless as well as HD/4k video.

Now in 2025, there is plenty of bandwidth and total data in most plans to accommodate full bit perfect high-res (24/48 and 24/96) at BOTH home/desktop and mobile/travel. Not only that, but the other companies are charging less and not touching the original files whatsoever.

I read the Spotify AMA from Reddit that someone linked above, and the manager’s explanation does not pass the smell test to have everything downsampled to 24/44.1

People do not have issues with high res playback anymore on most devices, especially not on any audio related devices, and the bump in data would still not be that big.

Also, if someone’s random device happened to have an issue where for some reason 24/96 or 24/192 wasn’t supported…give them the downsampled 24/44.1 or 16/44.1.

I figured this is probably Spotify’s attempt to somehow make a grab at a later “High-res tier” once things cool down.

HOWEVER, if they don’t plan on doing that and they genuinely believer this, I’m truly baffled. Like why cripple and downsample music for people who have perfectly good equipment that supports full high-res!? Just send the original as is, without your modification. Who asked you for this!?

I’ve read plenty of threads across forums about Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon HD etc about exclusive mode and stuff. However, NOT ONCE did I ever come across a request by anyone to have everything be 24/44.1. Not once.

I can understand the greedy “high res tier for later” angle. However, if this is how Spotify actually decides to keep it, I’m genuinely puzzled. You took so long, and yet just had to go do this at the end. You can go even more nuts with the app in other department, but at least deliver the music as is without your modification.

It might be a first world problem, but it’s about the principle. :rofl:

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I discovered today that I have it, but I can’t really use it because according to the Spotify App my KEF LSX II isn’t compatible with it.
Edit, one day Later: Seems to be just a bug, now it’s working.