Part 1. Everything We Know About Spotify Bitrate

What's Bitrate?

Have you had a full knowledge of bit rate already? No matter yes or no, let's check what it means again. According to the official definition, bitrate refers to the number of bits—or the amount of data—that are processed over a certain amount of time. In audio tracks, this usually means kilobits per second. Taken Spotify as example, songs or playlists you stream on Spotify is 160 kilobits per second, meaning there are 160 kilobits of data stored in every second of a song. Higher bitrate, more storage. Lower bitrate, you will plain hear a bit of distortion or can't hear the subtle background tracks, etc. So, a higher bitrate track could be the better listening experience.

Which Bitrate Does Spotify Stream At?

Apple Music: Is there a difference in sound quality? The streaming-music wars are on, with Apple Music and Spotify now locked in a battle on price, features and artist selection. Spotify is a digital music service that gives you access to millions of songs. We and our partners use cookies to personalize your experience, to show you ads based on your interests, and for measurement and analytics purposes. How to Change Audio Settings in Spotify on Computer. Though desktop app’s standard quality High-quality at Ogg Vorbis 160kbit/s, Premium subscribers have the option to switch to High-quality streaming, which uses 320kbit/s. Open the Spotify app on your computer. High quality on desktop is the same thing as extreme quality in the mobile app. The only difference is that it's named high quality in the desktop app instead of extreme. Both high quality on desktop and extreme quality on mobile are 320kbps bitrate. When you turn on high quality in the desktop app, this will also apply to offline songs. Method 1: Increasing Spotify Sound Quality on an iOS Device. It doesn't matter if you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, because the steps are exactly the same on all iOS devices. To start, open the Spotify app and tap on 'Your Library' in the bottom-right corner of the main menu. Next, tap on the setting gear in the top-right corner.

As for Spotify audio bitrate, it could be divided into three different parts according to platforms and subscription plans. With using Spotify desktop client, free Spotify users will be able to enjoy 160 kbps standard quality on PC and Mac, while premium subscribers can listen to 320 kbps high quality on desktop client. With using Spotify Web Player, you can enjoy AAC 128 kbps or 256 kbps audio quality for free or paid users. Besides, Spotify has compressed its music down to a bit rate of 96 kbps for standard quality, 160kbps for high quality and 320 kbps for Extreme quality (Premium only) on mobile devices.

Spotify has a range of audio quality options to suit your device, plan, and preferences.

Music quality

Spotify free

Spotify Premium

Web player

AAC 128kbit/s

AAC 256kbit/s

Desktop, mobile, and tablet

Automatic: Dependent on your network connection

Low: Equivalent to approximately 24kbit/s

Normal: Equivalent to approximately 96kbit/s

High: Equivalent to approximately 160kbit/s

Automatic: Dependent on your network connection

Low: Equivalent to approximately 24kbit/s

Normal: Equivalent to approximately 96kbit/s

High: Equivalent to approximately 160kbit/s

Very high: Equivalent to approximately 320kbit/s

Change music quality

Turn music quality up to hear the finer details or turn it down to save data.

Note: You can’t change audio settings when using Spotify Connect to play on another device.

You can have different settings for listening online (streaming quality) or offline (download quality).

Spotify extreme quality desktop app software

Higher streaming quality uses more data, and higher download quality uses more space.

Spotify Download Vs Windows App

Tap Home .
Tap Settings .
Under Music Quality, select your preferred settings.

Spotify Extreme Quality Desktop Apps

Click in the top-right corner and select Settings.
Under Music Quality, select your preferred settings

You can’t adjust music quality on the web player. Download the app to get more features.

Podcast quality

Podcast quality is equivalent to approximately 96kbit/s on all devices except the web player where it’s 128kbit/s.

Spotify Web Player Or App

On mobile/tablet, if you change the music quality to low, the podcast quality will also lower to approximately 24kbit/s.