Music lovers never temper with the sound quality!

[micro]

After installing Spotify I noticed the bad sound quality and had to learn only Premium users get normal quality. If Spotify wants to introduce itself as a high quality service I think it's the worst idea to lower the sound quality. I don't even know what I would get as a Premium user. Also low quality, only not as low?

SOUND QUALITY IS SACRED. Music lovers never temper with the sound quality! Never ever! 

[user-removed · Accepted solution]

Hey.

Welcome to Community.

Sound quality is awesome for free/unlimited service. It is 160 kbps OGG. In Premium sound quality is 320 kbps OGG. Better quality is in Settings. When update to Premium, enable Hiqh Quality sound in Preferences.

Currently 99,9% of songs are in 320 kbps. All qualitys of tracks are encoded from lossless format.

I listen now U-Jean – Heaven Is A Place On Earth feat. Carlprit - Video Edit with my AKG K 272 HD and sound quality in Premium is awesome...

[micro]

I did not mark the thread as "solved"! So who was it?

160 kbps is not much, and I'm still criticizing that Spotify deliberately lowers the sound quality of the music. Nothing for music lovers, and the premium subscription is way too expensive. 

[user-removed · Accepted solution]

For free 160 kbps is good.

Premium quality is only in Premium service. All tracks are converted from Lossless format.

[pawletto]

No kidding. I just signed up today and decided to try the free service first. The sound quality is downright bad, as though they took a normal quality file and removed about half the information. It reminds me of listening to a.m. radio. It's one thing to advertise premium audio as a step up, but I suspect the premium servie merely is the normal quality we all are used to.Really disappointed! But, it was a free download...I'm just not interested in playing games like dumbing down a music file and trying to pass it off as normal in order to sell a premium service.

If anyone thinks the sound quality of the free service is good, then I think they've lost their hearing.

[FunkyLowVolume · Accepted solution]

Bad sound quality? Are you kidding?

The sound quality in Free/Unlimited sounds exactly the same as iTunes and YouTube. I've recently got Premium and honestly the difference is minute, if at all noticable. You have to consider that sound cards and speakers also play a part in the quality of music.

Stop whinging and enjoy free music.

[graemeback]

I have been a long time user of the free service, so should count my blessings I guess, but has the something changed recently?

What I always considered good seems to have dropped off to sound more like 64kbps. I'm on the network I have used for years and everything else seems fine. I am wondering if the free service has had it's quality dropped and this is what people are now noticing.

Is there a way to get streaming statistics to put some numbers against what I am receiving.

g

[pawletto]

Watch out graemback, they don't take kindly to criticisms here.

[user-removed]

Spotify sound quality in Free is always 160 kbps. Of course if you listen old records, quality may be more bad. You know why.

[graemeback]

thanks for the tips and nice link to the dupe tool.

the tracks on my playlist have been there for years (2009) and as I am super dull it hasnt change much - point being I know the tracks.

it's hard to moan about something that's free, but posed my question given other experiences.

[user-removed]

How you listen music? Sound system, hifi or headphones?

I think that Spotify's 160 kbps is better than 192 kbps mp3. I do not know anyone who hate this free quality. It's very fantastic that Spotify started with 160 kbps. In bad situation this 160 kbps would be 128 kbps ogg. And for free there isn't so much to ask.

Spotify always listen feedback and I as customer very happy with 160 kbps, I listen 160 kbps in my Mobile. There is no 320 kbps mode for now in Windows Phone's Spotify.

I'm not hifi man, I listen with "market brands", but I like sound and can hear a diffirence - in Premium 320 kbps more bass and better sound quality. Maybe in 10,000 $ hifi set 160 kbps ogg is poor, but this is the reason why Premium is created. 🙂

Not all for Free. 🙂

[makino]

hi

i m new with spotify.

i m listening spotify  with laptop.

but i send it with  bluetooth to my hifi stereo music system from  my laptop .(weak speakers of laptop)

we know soundcards of laptop's are average.

for streamingis is the quality of the resource(laptop) important while streaming ?

for premium sound quality is 320 kpbs

and what about free version?

thank u

[user-removed]

Hey there and welcome to the Community!

I hope you enjoy your Spotify. In Free music quality is always 160 kbps. This quality is also in Unlimited. Only in Premium service user can use 160 kbps or 320 kbps. Remember to enable Extreme quality when you purchase Premium in Spotify Preferences from Edit. Then you can enjoy all music in Extreme quality. All music eg. 100% of music in Spotify is currently in 320 kbps quality.

If you want to enjoy right away Extreme quality, just go to this page and get one Premium account.

Have a nice day!

[LutJake]

The Sound Quality Is Sh!t compared to .flac 

[FunkyLowVolume]

Opinion, not fact. Besides, lossless would be inconvinient for syncing playlists and even streaming in some cases. 320 kbps is fine, don't kid yourself about it.

[DandiLyon1296]

Hi, I had the same thought at first.  I looked up "Spotify bad sound quality" and found this forum and though you were "right on" and everyone was crazy for saying the sound was good.  So, I did some experimenting.  We have a new computer and I had never played music on it.  After playing around with headphones and listenting to itunes with this new pc, I figured out that it's the speakers on the computer because all music was sounding "tinny" on this pc.  The headphones makes the music sound awesome and I'm going to try portable speakers to see how they sound.  For what it's worth.  Just a possibility.

[Choiglia]

"Opinion, not fact. Besides, lossless would be inconvinient for syncing playlists and even streaming in some cases. 320 kbps is fine, don't kid yourself about it."

@Mercury/Tempest: Wow, you really can't notice the difference??  I'm on the Premium, and the sound quality is DEFINITELY mediocre, and NOTICEABLY worse than CD, FLAC, or even an iTunes download.

The only advantage of this service is the convenience.  If you can't hear the difference, then you're lucky I guess, but it is quite noticeable!

[odysseus]

How can someone be so into music that they have thousands of spotify posts, but not be able to hear the difference between 160 and 320 kpbps. A 10 thousand dollar stereo is way overkill to hear the difference. With 400 worth of sound card and headphones i can pick a clear difference between 160, 320 and flac.  Using these headphones is a waste with free quality,  let alone if I was using 10 thousand dollars worth of audio equipment. I understand why Spotify would make 320 paid only, and I understand that most people listen to music with cheap speakers/headphones, but please dont kid yourself that 160 sound basically the same as 320 or flac.  For 12 bucks a month i dont think lossles audio should be out of the question either. However, given Spotify's target demographic, it may be many years coming. 

Anyone with a decent sound system and half a brain will only use spotify while on the go, at work etc and listen to higher quality music at home. 

[splatpanic]

i agree. i dont want to use spotify on my phone etc, i just want it it on my pc at home. i pay 4.99 a month for a pretty poor quality sound. i wouldnt mind upping that a quid for better sound quality and not having the option to have it on phne etc cause i just wouldnt use it.

320 kps sound for 5.99  mont pc only please.

[member]

I ask here the Spotify team:

What software do you use to grab the music from the CDs?

What technique do you use for making playback gapless on mix CDs for example?