Lossless playback on third-party Connect devices

[Billgates307]

Plan

Premium

Country

Netherlands

Device

iPad/Euphony Music server

Operating System

Linux

My Question or Issue

Hello Spotify team,

I have a question regarding the rollout of Spotify Lossless and its compatibility with third-party devices that use Spotify Connect.

I am using a high-end Linux-based music server called Euphony, which implements the standard Spotify Connect protocol (“Spotify Device” mode in their software). Playback works perfectly, but currently, Spotify Lossless is not available when using this Connect mode — even though it is enabled and functional in the official Spotify apps on iOS and iPadOS.

The Euphony “Spotify Device” implementation relies on the official Connect protocol (librespot compatible), and thus depends entirely on what the Spotify app transmits via Connect.
It would be helpful to know whether:

1. The Lossless / FLAC stream is currently restricted to certain hardware IDs or specific partners, and

2. Whether full Lossless support for all Connect-certified devices will become available once the SDK or Connect backend is updated.

Many users in the high-end audio community are eagerly awaiting Spotify Lossless support through Connect-enabled systems like Euphony, Volumio, Roon Bridge, and others. Any clarification or timeline you can provide would be highly appreciated.

Kind regards,
Edwin Brouwers

[no4b]

librespot doesn't support lossless at this time because of DRM Spotify uses to protect streaming of FLAC files.

[mrc3984]

Librespot’s current limitation isn’t due to DRM protection, but rather because Spotify hasn’t yet made the Lossless (FLAC) stream available over the Spotify Connect protocol at all.

The new Lossless tier works only within the official Spotify apps (Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android), which use Spotify’s proprietary playback pipeline to request and decrypt FLAC files directly from their servers.

By contrast, Spotify Connect endpoints — including all third-party streamers and the open-source librespot library — still receive audio via the legacy Ogg Vorbis 320 kbps stream. There’s no DRM barrier preventing librespot from handling FLAC; it’s simply that the Connect backend doesn’t deliver FLAC data to external devices yet.

Once Spotify extends Lossless support to the Connect API or SDK, projects like librespot (and products that rely on it, such as moOde, Volumio, and Euphony) will be able to implement it without issue. Until then, all Connect devices are limited to the “Very High” Ogg Vorbis stream, regardless of hardware capability.

[no4b]

You are completely wrong.