Flac Support

[LaoTzu]

will spotify be upgrading to flac support soon? and streaming in flac for higher quality music? if so spotify would be a leader in sound quality and would set it apart from other competitors. please consider this.

[user-removed]

99,9% of users can not hear diffirence when compare Spotify's 320 kbps OGG and FLAC/CD.

I do not believe that Spotify provide FLAC in future.

[LaoTzu]

working as a producer flac doesnt compress anything sceintifically youll hear more high end and no loss of quality straight from studio to the record produced.  with mp3 youll get a compressed product from the studio as mp3 has to compensate for the audio information lost from the studio to the song produced. there will be a massive difference in sound quality once the door is open to companies such as spotify making it happen and producers mixing in a higher bit rate. as a producer and as alot of freinds being producers we know we can produce a higher quality of sound because of flac. so it would be foolish to ignore it.

[user-removed]

Spotify does not use MP3. Only OGG from lossless format. The quality is like CD for me. I'm not a hifi man, but to me even Spotify's 160 kbps OGG is good. I know, this FLAC sound may be useful for audiophiles, but then Spotify should take more money from those people - because more saerver costs etc.

[LaoTzu]

check this out for the raw data and facts http://flac.sourceforge.net/comparison.html

[skum-cat]

I got a High-end sound system (Gamut DAC, tube-amp and scanspeak homemade speaker), and i can only hear a very little bit different against the CD and FLAC format. It's was off course a blind test, and i heared the track 5 times each. 

[schizoform]

I don't see a big benefit for streaming. But playing back your FLAC local files is a big plus. Look, it doesn't really matter whether or not you can hear the difference. What matters more is that transcoding causes progressive degradation in sound: if you care about fidelity, you want to keep your master copy lossless. In any case, the fact is that FLAC is not that rare -- it's supported by most major media players but NOT Spotify, and for many of us, that's a liability.

[Halgeir]

I like to add that I don't buy music from Spotify (or other online music stores) because it's not in Flac format. On my stereo I hear the difference between flac and high quality ogg/mp3 mainly in the lower og higher regions in the sound. So my only choice is the cd, dvd or lp when I need high quality music on a media. But the streamingservice of Spotify is great to listen to new music and replaces the radio. The streaming quality is also good.

[Guancheitor]

"Re: Flac Support

 [ New ]

03-05-2012 06:27 PM

99,9% of users can not hear diffirence when compare Spotify's 320 kbps OGG and FLAC/CD."

Absolutely false. 100% of people can differentiate between a flacor mpr3  file if you listen with Hi End equipment

A cheapest player is another.

connect your pc to a quality dac with a quality amplifier and speakers and hear the quality difference

Sorry for my bad english

[Guancheitor]

99,9% of users can not hear diffirence when compare Spotify's 320 kbps OGG and FLAC/CD."

[Halgeir]

---

@Guancheitor wrote:

"Re: Flac Support

 [ New ]

03-05-2012 06:27 PM

99,9% of users can not hear diffirence when compare Spotify's 320 kbps OGG and FLAC/CD."

Absolutely false. 100% of people can differentiate between a flacor mpr3  file if you listen with Hi End equipment

A cheapest player is another.

connect your pc to a quality dac with a quality amplifier and speakers and hear the quality difference

Sorry for my bad english

---

I agree. I have the same experience.

)-|algeir

[Halgeir]

99,9% of users can not hear diffirence when compare Spotify's 320 kbps OGG and FLAC/CD."

[LaoTzu]

even itunes. is encouraging a master service of getting recording engineers to record up to 192 khz 24-bit. it will be in the next logic 10 update to have an option to master to hi quality itunes. 
the future is that we will use mp3s for our portable devices because there smaller in size but at home when we want some listneing pleasure they will make another copy of 24-bit 192 khz or hi-def audio to listen back on nice speakers. 
being a producer myself you can hear the difference. 
even if spotify doesnt get there hi def quota yet it would be nice to have the ability to play it native just so i can play back my other converted audio from my cds.

[lkjlkjlkjlkjlkj]

Another vote here for being able to add Local FLAC files to playlists and be able to play them as with MP3s, then and only then will "all my music be in one incredible music player" or something along those lines...

SORT IT OUT SPOTIFFYYY!!!!!!!!

WHY HAS THIS NOT BEEN DONE ALREADY!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

[jacozz]

Flac support should be implemented sooner rather than later.

I'm considering cancel my membership and move to Qobuz which has Flac lossless streaming for a premium prize.

I understand that Flac-streaming will be problematic due to bandwith, not for me since I have 100 mbit broadband, but for Spotify:s servers.

And that's what it's all about.

Bandwith cost money.

But, here's an idea.

Why not let us premium users have the opportunity to have Flac files downloaded, the same way offline playback works today?

In that way, Spotify do not have to stream the flacs in realtime. This should be doable me thinks.

[Ahla]

I hope that everyone already voted for this idea. If not, do it now! http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Ideas/LOCAL-FLAC-PLAYBACK/idi-p/124168

[olehenrikj]

Why always someone need to say "I don't hear the difference between lossless and lossy 320kbit mp3/ogg"?

If you are satisfied with 320, then fine, but don't stop us from trying to be able to import our own flac-files. I have only flac from my CD-rips, something else would just be pity. At least when I spend cash on proper sound card (Asus Xonar Essence XTS) and earphones (Denon AH-D2000).

And we are not screaming after lossless streaming (even if that would be preferred), but as local import. And really, is it any problems with that? FLAC is even open source and can be freely used.

Would be nice if I could sync all my music directly to my phone as well.

[lkjlkjlkjlkjlkj]

So my solution so far, has been to convert my FLACS to ALACs (apple's lossless codec) using dbpoweramp music converter, which is multithreaded and preserves ID3 tagging data.

They will then automatically import and play in spotify.

[gilbert]

Hello, 

Shure the difference in  compression algorithm is audible. FLAC is interesting, not only in an elctroacoustic way.

The problem for Spotify and other companies trying to deal w/ copyright owners is that "lossless" formats are exactly that. It allows you to cut a perfect master from a FLAC original. 

Now, myself I just discovered Spotify and the fact that I can listen to the Ruts "Babylon on Fire", Lenny Breau "Five O'clock Bells"

and Whitney H . when she passed outweighs a lot of format problems.

I live in a badly insulated appartment and for the first time in my life have to resort to headphones. Its not fun. But ...

So we all have problems. I will move to a place where I can listen to vinyl records on a 10000$ system. And I'll do it.

It's not a dream.

And  the important thing is for us music listeners of the XI century is to listen to music and on the same time giving the musicians

a cut.

FLAC .L gilh

[DevinDahlgren]

I have a high end system from Linn. It's their DS product. When I do the comparisons between CD and streaming flac files the flac files actually sound much better. Not a little bit but a lot.

[David]

Hello,

Currently we do not support FLAC, as you may very well know. We don't have any plans for this at present, as you can see here -  http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Ideas/LOCAL-FLAC-PLAYBACK/idi-p/124168

However, if Kudos for this idea keep rolling in we may consider it at an appropreate time in the future. 

[Pauky]

Spotify's Local support for FLAC would hugely improve the user experience.

Now It is really annoying to need to switch between programs when I want to play and listen to my music, it's also sad that my most favourite music - FLAC files - is not recognised by Spotify at all.

FLAC is lossless format used by many, for playback and archiving favourite music records. Cannot Spotify afford to implement its support? What is the problem?

Majority of digital media players support range of Losseless formats including FLAC.

Considering streaming music in Lossless format is obviously nonsense in this time.