Do you find the audio quality of Spotify on Android and iOS disappointing? With these steps you can increase the audio quality.
Spotify isn’t exactly known for its HiFi audio quality. On the contrary. The streaming service is possibly the last one that does not yet support lossless audio files. Spotify’s maximum bit rate is 320 kbps. By comparison, Apple’s Lossless audio achieves a bit rate of max 800-900 kbps. Tidal crushes both parties with a Master bitrate of 2,304 to 9,216 kbps.
In addition, with a higher bit rate, more details can be preserved in the sound. Are you on Spotify and would you like to continue using it? In that case, of course, that comparison is of little use. However, there is a good chance that you are currently not getting the maximum audio quality from your Spotify streams. Below we explain which steps you can follow to improve the audio quality on Spotify.
Option 1 / increase the audio quality
By default, you don’t stream at Spotify’s maximum bitrate. On the contrary, even: normally the audio quality is set to ‘Normal’ (96 kbps) or the quality is adjusted to your network connection. Provided you have sufficient mobile data available, we recommend switching to the option ‘Very high’ (320 kbps).
- To do this, open the Spotify app op Android of iOS
- Click on it at the top right gear icon
- click on Audio quality (iOS) or scroll down to the Audio quality settings to find (Android)
- Select at Streamen via Wifi in Stream over mobile network for Very high
If you often download playlists, choose the higher audio quality there as well. Mind you, that takes up more storage space.
Option 2 / Disable audio normalization
You may have noticed that the volume of commercials on TV sometimes differed from each other in the past. It has everything to do with audio normalization. Although standards have been created to equalize the volume of tracks, not everyone adheres to them. One solution is audio normalization: equalizing the volume on each track. As much as that is nice for the hearing, you do compromise on audio quality. We therefore explain how to disable the function:
- To do this, open the Spotify app op Android of iOS
- Click on it at the top right gear icon
- click on Play (iOS) or scroll down to the Playback settings to find (Android)
- Turn off the switch behind Audio normalization (iOS) of Normalize volume (Android)
The only downside to this is that some songs can be louder than you are used to. Turn down the volume of headphones and wireless earphones to prevent hearing damage.
