Spotify stream quality pushed to 320kbps

YOU CALL THAT EXTREME?!?

If Spotify wants to increase it's userbase, they'd better start offering a lossless format option like FLAC.

Even Apple's iTunes has a lossless option for some songs.....

Originally posted by ivymike:

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YOU CALL THAT EXTREME?!?

If Spotify wants to increase it's userbase, they'd better start offering a lossless format option like FLAC.

Even Apple's iTunes has a lossless option for some songs.....

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I never rip anything at any lower rate, 320kbps is the minimum I'd want to use for any audio.

FLAC would be great...but it would probably be too much for low-bandwidth companies like Sprint and AT&T...and even with Verizon or T-Mobile you would hit limits that cause extra fees or slow-downs. If you can actually hear the difference between a 320kbps MP3 and FLAC, you must have ungodly ears. Honestly, I can tell the difference from 160K to 192K...but after that, I can't tell unless I have a good subwoofer and/or dedicated tweeters...and even then, 320K sounds and feels the same as FLAC.

Of course, I still rip everything in FLAC just because I have OCD.

I thought Spotify premium streamed at 320kbps right from the start? Or was that excluding mobile devices?

Indeed Spotify had an option for mobile devices to choose the streaming quality (low 96kbps vs high-160kbps) - but this is just all about it. That hasn't changed since (at least for Android).

For the iPhone things are different now and there are three bandwidths to choose from, the last one being the questionable "Extreme" option which must be 320kbps.