Do you want to listen to your Spotify playlists in the best possible quality? Here’s how to do it on the streaming service’s mobile and desktop apps.
One of the biggest advantages of Spotify Premium is the higher audio quality. While free Spotify accounts can listen at 160 kbit/s, Premium subscribers can bump that number up to 320 kbit/s.
What you may not know is that you can increase the music quality to hear more details or lower it to save data on your device manually. This can be a useful trick for those with more limited data plans, especially since Spotify gives you the ability to adjust Wi-Fi and cellular streaming quality separately.
There’s also an Auto Quality Adjustment option to detect and reduce streaming quality when internet bandwidth is low, which prevents music from being interrupted (although you can turn it off if you prefer).
Follow these steps to learn how to change the audio quality on the Spotify smartphone and tablet apps, or scroll down to the end of this guide to learn how to do it on the desktop app.
What you will need:
- A Spotify account
- The mobile or tablet application
the short version
- Open Spotify
- Go to your Settings
- Tap Audio Quality
- Choose a streaming quality
How to change the audio quality in Spotify
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Step
1Open Spotify
You can follow these steps in the iOS and Android apps on your smartphone or tablet. For tips on how to change the audio quality on the desktop app, scroll to the end of this guide.
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Step
twoTap the Settings icon
This is the gear icon in the top right corner of the screen.
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Step
3Select audio quality
This will be between Voice Assistants & Apps and Video Quality.
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Step
4Choose the quality you want to stream in
You can choose different options for Wi-Fi and cellular streaming if you’re worried about using your data.
Problem solving
To increase or decrease the audio quality on the desktop app, all you need to do is click the down arrow in the top right corner and click Settings. Then click Audio Quality and choose your preferred setting.
No, You can not. While upgrading to Spotify Premium will bring quality from AAC 128kbit/s to AAC 256kbit/s, you’ll need to download the desktop or mobile app to upgrade quality for any account type.
