Will Hifi Quality bring support of FLAC/ALAC/Hi res file formats for local files?

[GuyB1]

It's great new to see Spotify announce Hi Fi quality, however, in order to make it really interesting to have a hi fi library with Spotify, it's necessary to have local files support for FLAC, ALAC or other hi res local file formats. What is Spotify intending to do about this? Or do they plan to have Apple Music stay ahead?

[hans-jürgen · Accepted solution]

ALAC encoded *.m4a files are already supported in the Spotify desktop app, at least in Windows 10, not sure for the macOS version, but I guess it also works. It is using the internal ALAC decoder in Windows 10 for this, so your Windows version should have one. Also note that the file extension should not be capitalised, otherwise it will not recognise them (same as for *.mp3 files).

[Edit]

In the latest desktop version direct FLAC support has already been implemented and works fine, at least for me in version 1.1.60.672.g6ad9c215-a on Windows 10 Home version 21H1. See also this related thread and staff reply:

Re: FLAC files in Downloads directory opened, acce... - The Spotify Community

[GuyB1]

Thanks, indeed, it works well. The only thing is, there is a quirk in the Desktop app. You don't see local files appearing in the Library tab unless you create at least 1 playlist. That was the problem. Added Local Files simply didn't show up.