Spotify has the perfect music discovery algorithms and the slickest, snappiest person interface. It leads me down rabbit holes to search out new artists and outdated favorites, based mostly on what I’ve already preferred and listened to on the app.
The free tier, with commercials, defaults to a low-quality 96-Kbps streaming bit price, however you may bump that as much as 160 Kbps. For $12 a month (a $1 enhance from the final time we up to date this story in January 2024), the Premium tier ditches adverts totally and streams as much as 320 Kbps, which is the usual streaming high quality nowadays. These are bit charges for the app; the net participant sticks you with 128 Kbps and 256 Kbps, respectively.
Spotify’s lossless library, introduced in February of 2021, lastly began rolling out in September of 2025, and it helps music as much as 24-bit at 44.1KHz—though as I write this, most lossless songs are 16-bit at 44.1KHz. Not each person has entry but, however the cellular and desktop app will notify you with a splash display whenever you’re invited, or you may test your audio high quality settings to see when you’ve got the choice to decide in. On the desktop app, you may click on the “Lossless” tag below a observe whereas it is taking part in to see the small print.
Spotify allows you to add an infinite variety of songs to your private library. As a long-requested function, the ten,000-song restrict is gone, and now you can add limitless songs to every playlist. Should you activate social sharing, you may see what your mates have been listening to and create classes whereby a gaggle concurrently streams a playlist. There’s an choice on every Artist web page to hearken to solely the songs of theirs you’ve preferred, which is a really welcome change from earlier years.
The best way Spotify teams albums, compilations, and singles in a single location—with an choice to separate them—is way smoother and extra handy than the outdated setup, which compelled you to view all of them individually, all the time. Playlists and albums get their very own shuffle buttons, which is a pleasant contact that allows you to know whenever you’re on shuffle and whenever you’re listening to all the pieces so as.
