Linux Desktop Client Missing Lossless Audio Support

[jesse1231]

Hi Spotify Team,

I'm excited to see that lossless audio has finally started rolling out to Premium subscribers! However, I've noticed that the Linux desktop client appears to be missing this highly anticipated feature.

According to the September 10, 2025 announcement, lossless streaming is available on "mobile, desktop, and tablet" - but when I check my Linux Spotify client settings, there's no option to enable lossless quality under Media Quality settings. The highest available option is still "Very High" rather than the new "Lossless" setting mentioned in the announcement.

As a Linux user and Premium subscriber, I'd really appreciate having feature parity with other desktop platforms. Many Linux users are audiophiles who would greatly benefit from 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC streaming, especially since we often have high-quality audio setups.

Could you please confirm:

1. Is lossless support planned for the Linux desktop client?
2. If so, what's the expected timeline for this feature?
3. Are there any technical limitations preventing lossless on Linux specifically?

I understand the feature is rolling out gradually, but it would be great to know that Linux users aren't being left behind on this major Premium feature enhancement.

Thanks for your time and for continuing to improve Spotify!

[mydoom5]

Seems the team silently added it. Thank you!!!

[rbsbd]

It was not showing. I just tried to play from the Android app and chose my desktop on Spotify Connect.

The dropdown entry "Lossless" suddenly appeared on the desktop app.

[SebestyenBela]

I am a little bit confused that I have found only one stream which is 1400000 bits/s 

As shows this log:

10:28:18.573 I [f:327                           ]     bitrate: 700000 bits/s
10:28:18.573 I [f:328                           ]     sample rate: 44100 Hz
10:28:21.205 I [f:326                           ]     codec: flac
10:28:21.205 I [f:327                           ]     bitrate: 700000 bits/s
10:28:21.205 I [f:328                           ]     sample rate: 44100 Hz
10:28:38.412 I [f:326                           ]     codec: flac
10:28:38.412 I [f:327                           ]     bitrate: 1400000 bits/s
10:28:38.412 I [f:328                           ]     sample rate: 44100 Hz
10:28:42.941 I [f:326                           ]     codec: flac
10:28:42.941 I [f:327                           ]     bitrate: 700000 bits/s
10:28:42.941 I [f:328                           ]     sample rate: 44100 Hz
10:28:45.819 I [f:326                           ]     codec: flac
10:28:45.819 I [f:327                           ]     bitrate: 700000 bits/s
10:28:45.819 I [f:328                           ]     sample rate: 44100 Hz
10:28:47.714 I [f:326                           ]     codec: flac
10:28:47.714 I [f:327                           ]     bitrate: 700000 bits/s
10:28:47.714 I [f:328                           ]     sample rate: 44100 Hz
10:28:50.199 I [f:326                           ]     codec: flac
10:28:50.199 I [f:327                           ]     bitrate: 700000 bits/s
10:28:50.199 I [f:328                           ]     sample rate: 44100 Hz
10:28:52.885 I [f:326                           ]     codec: flac
10:28:52.885 I [f:327                           ]     bitrate: 700000 bits/s
10:28:52.885 I [f:328                           ]     sample rate: 44100 Hz
10:28:55.342 I [f:326                           ]     codec: flac
10:28:55.342 I [f:327                           ]     bitrate: 700000 bits/s
10:28:55.342 I [f:328                           ]     sample rate: 44100 Hz
10:28:57.602 I [f:326                           ]     codec: flac
10:28:57.602 I [f:327                           ]     bitrate: 700000 bits/s
10:28:57.602 I [f:328                           ]     sample rate: 44100 Hz
10:29:05.417 I [f:326                           ]     codec: flac

[no4b]

I'm curious about what those numbers actually represent. If you calculate the raw bitrate for uncompressed audio at 44.1 kHz, you'd get 1411200 bits per second for 16-bit depth and 2116800 bits per second for 24-bit. However, it's possible that these figures refer to the bitrate of a FLAC file. Since FLAC uses variable bitrate (VBR), the actual bitrate should vary depending on the content of a track.

[Oldics]

---

I am a little bit confused that I have found only one stream which is 1400000 bits/s 

---

Spotify's fault, you can check the app on other platforms and will rarely find 24bits tracks, even if they are distributed that way, I've seen 24b/96KHz tracks being 16bits on Spotify. It's very strange.

[RandomUsername44]

My guess is that in most cases record companies have used the same master as the CD (44.1Khz/16bit) for Spotify releases knowing that until recently, that's the highest sample rate/bit depth supported by the service, so now that 24bit is available as a delivery method the number of 24bit tracks in the catalogue is very low. 

This would explain why many releases that are 24bit in other services are 16bit on Spotify even now. If that's the case we might see more and more of them in the coming months as new albums are being mastered after the announcement. (Not that it matters since 16bit is more than enough for reproduction purposes)

[lolzhunter]

as far as i know and understand it, there isnt much point making 24 bit tracks anyways for listening unless you can hear the difference between -96db and -144db, or 96db and 144db (blender to jet engine noise range), they are used legitimately for editing though but i believe anything higher than 16 bit for listening is sort of just a marketing thing

[S1ayer914]

I also got it on CachyOS. Don't believe I updated the package either.

Welcome surprise, I was honestly expecting them to take a long time to add it.

 

[rasputin666pl]

That command used to work, but sadly it doesn’t on Ubuntu now — Spotify no longer prints codec or bitrate info to the terminal.

[rasputin666pl]

ok works sorted.

[CamBanfield]

And it's there! 😄 Thank you Spotify for not forgetting about the Linux users ❤️

[Oldics]

Very interestingly, an announcement on X for Lossless availability (https://x.com/Spotify/status/1980256938681356535) came together with a fresh new update for Spotify 1.2.74 (edge/testing) (Spotify-launcher and Spotify AUR use this branch). Finally we are again on par with Windows and MacOS 🙂 

[elspotifyo]

Any ideas when this will come to the Debian (apt) repository?

[Oldics]

It's already in the apt repository, just not the stable branch, they usually push it to stable after a month or so. Honestly, I'd recommend switching to the testing branch, it's been so stable that some distros like Arch use it for release, and 90% of the time, the same exact build just gets pushed to stable.

If you'd like trying just switch stable to testing in

/etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list

[mmisic]

For debian stable and impatient 🙂
To get the latest Spotify (1.2.74 Edge) on Debian stable without using Snap or Flatpak, I temporarily installed Snap only to download the Spotify Edge package, then extracted it using unsquashfs. I moved the extracted spotify folder to /opt/spotify-edge so it behaves like a normal app and runs natively. After verifying it worked, I removed Snap completely, leaving a clean system that still runs the latest Spotify directly.

[internettum]

Just switched to the snap candidate channel and I now also have the lossless label and onboarding 🎉
Thanks Spotify!

```
latest/stable: 1.2.63.394.g126b0d89 2025-06-30 (88) 198MB -
latest/candidate: 1.2.74.477.g3be53afe 2025-10-20 (89) 206MB -
```

[AmbientLife]

I wanted to say thank you thank you!! I'm on pop! os and the latest update has lossless available! You guys ROCK! GREAT work on lossless.  It's honestly like a whole new world!

[Svartiz]

The feature is live. Thanks Spotify. 🤗

[ft8]

On Ubuntu, do a

snap update --candidate spotify

which will update to 1.2.74.477.g3be53afe providing lossless.

[AmbientLife]

the devs seriously deserve a huge round of applause for bringing lossless to linux THIS FAST.  you can see how many people are on linux these days compared to the past.  ty soo much. im enjoying this immensely