When talking about which music streaming service you should choose, the sound quality that the services delivery is one of the most important factors you will take into consideration. Tidal perhaps is one of the most well-known services which offer high-fidelity sound, referring to the music files that haven't been compressed, and while most other streaming services, including Spotify, though delivers the most comprehensive and complete experience, but compressed music files (decent 320Kbps quality) in a way.

• Spotify Quality Levels
• Normal Vs High Spotify Download Quality Music
• Spotify Music Quality Very High

Lots of people will tell you “Oh yes, the difference is huge”. There are many answers right here using words like “massive” and “crisper” and “depth”. You can choose from the following audio quality settings, all in the Ogg Vorbis format: Normal – Equivalent to approximately 96kbit/s. High – Equivalent to approximately 160kbit/s.

So if you want all your music from Spotify sound amazing, you can take multiple methods to improve sound quality. And here we list the best ways you can refer to change or improve the streaming or download audio quality on Spotify.

Part 1: What Audio Bitrate does Spotify Use to Stream?

Part 2: How to Change the Streaming Audio Quality on Spotify?

Part 3: How to Improve Spotify Audio Quality?

Part 4: How to Download Spotify Music to MP3 with High Quality 320kbps?

Part 1: What Audio Bitrate does Spotify Use to Stream?

Before introducing the audio bitrate used by Spotify for streaming, it is necessary to simply define what audio bitrate is.

In the field of digital multimedia, bitrate often refers to the number of bits used per unit of playback time to represent a continuous medium such as audio or video after source coding (data compression). In audio, this usually means kilobits per second. For example, the music you downloaded on Spotify is 320 kilobits per second, meaning there are 320 kilobits of data stored in every second of a song. Generally, the higher the bitrate of a track, the better the quality of sound is, but the more space it will take up on disc.

Until now, Spotify offers low, high and extreme sound quality settings. The normal Spotify bitrate setting is 96 kbps, the high bitrate is 160 kbps and extreme is 320kbps. And in March 2018, Spotify tested a new lossless audio version (Spotify Hi-Fi, similar to CD quality offered by Tidal) of its streaming service. Now, let’s see the different audio bitrate used by Spotify on multiple devices.

Spotify Streaming Audio Quality on Desktop:

The desktop app's standard quality is Ogg Vorbis 160kbit/s.

Premium subscribers can choose to switch on High quality streaming, which uses 320kbit/s.

Streaming Audio Quality on Web Player:

The web player's standard quality is AAC 128kbit/s, and 256kbit/s for Premium.

Note: It's not possible to adjust audio settings on the web player currently.

Streaming Audio Quality on iPhone and iPad

You can choose the following audio quality settings (all in the Ogg Vorbis format) on your iPhone and iPad.

Low - approximately 24kbit/s.

Normal - approximately 96kbit/s.

High - approximately 160kbit/s.

Very high - approximately 320kbit/s.

Automatic - depends on your network connection.

Streaming Audio Quality on Android:

You can choose the following audio quality settings on Android phone or tablets.

Low - approximately 24 kbit/s (HE-AACv2 format).

Normal – approximately 96kbit/s (Ogg Vorbis format).

High – approximately 160kbit/s (Ogg Vorbis format).

Very high – approximately 320kbit/s (Ogg Vorbis format).

Spotify Quality Levels

Automatic – depends on your network connection.

Streaming Audio Quality on Chromecast:

Spotify streaming sound quality used by Chromecast is standard AAC 128 kbit/s and Premium 256 kbit/s.

Part 2: How to Change the Streaming Audio Quality on Spotify?

It is very easy to change the streaming audio quality of Spotify, and the operation is slightly different on different devices.

On desktop: Click the arrow in the top-right corner and select Settings, under Music Quality, switch High quality streaming (Premium only) on or off.

On iPhone, iPad and Android: Tap Your Library > tap tap >Music Quality to choose the streaming and downloading quality you prefer.

Part 3: How to Improve the Streaming Audio Quality on Spotify?

1. Upgrade to Spotify Premium

Spotify Free plan only offers 96 kbps and 160 kbps for choosing from to stream, but 320 kbps with Spotify Premium. To improve the streaming sound quality of Spotify, you can upgrade to Spotify Premium.

2. Listen to Music with Wi-Fi Connected

Depends on the different network connection status, the streaming audio bitrate also differs. That is to say, the higher bitrate when streaming, the more amount internet traffic increases accordingly. To enjoy or download the music with high sound quality, please make sure that you are on good Wi-Fi connection to save your data plan.

3. Use the Equalizer to Enhance the Playback on Mobile

You can also use the built-in Equalizer tool on Spotify mobile phone app to improve the quality of music playback, which lets you adjust the levels of music you're listening to by choosing over 20 presets covering different types of music genres and frequency configurations.

Go to Your Library tab > tap on icon > tap the Playback option > tap Equalizer, then you can tap one of the more-than-20 equalizer presets which including Acoustic, Classical, Dance, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Rock, and more, or make a custom equalizer setting by using your finger on the graphic equalizer dots to adjust individual frequency bands up or down.

4. Use High Quality Earphones or Speakers

Listen to Spotify music on sound systems, stereos, headphones, and speakers, you will experience the ultimate in music streaming sound quality.

Part 4: How to Download Spotify Music to MP3 with High Quality 320kbps

For people who want to get high quality 320kbps MP3 songs from Spotify, Sidify Music Converter is definitely the best choice. It does a truly great job to download and convert Spotify music to MP3, AAC, WAV or FLAC with the best sound quality kept and without any other poor encoding issues. It records accurately and quickly, and adds the correct tags and album art correctly.

Spotify Apple Music Converter

• Download Spotify song or playlist to MP3/AAC/WAV/FLAC.
• Keep 100% original audio quality of Spotify after conversion.
• Keep all ID3 tags and metadata to well organize music library.
• Burn Spotify music to CD and share Spotify music via Email.
• Fast conversion speed & highly compatibility.

In the following part, we will show you how to download and save tracks, playlists, and albums from Spotify with high sound quality (320kbps) kept by using Sidify Music Converter.

Step 1Run Sidify Music Converter

Download and install Sidify Music Converter on your Windows PC or Mac, then launch this music converter.

Step 2Add Spotify Song or Playlist

Click on icon in the Sidify main interface, if prompted, you can copy and paste a song or playlist link to Sidify clipboard, or drag & drop a song, playlist or album to the adding window directly.

Step 3Customize the Output Setting

Click on icon in the top right corner, when a setting dialogue popup, you can choose the output format (MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC), conversion mode, output path, and output quality to 320kbps.

Tips: To better organize the music library after conversion, you can choose to save the output music files into organized folder: Artist, Album, Artist/Album, or Album/Artist.

Step 4Start Conversion

Click on Convert button to start converting Spotify song, playlist, or album to plain audio formats.

After the conversion completed, you can click icon to find the well-converted Spotify music with 320kbps high quality kept.

That’s all to illustrate how to change and improve Spotify streaming audio quality, and how to save Spotify music to MP3 with 320kbps high quality kept. You can download Sidify Music Converter to discover more extra ordinarily powerful feature sets.

Note: The trial version of Sidify Music Converter enable us to convert the first 3-minute audio from Spotify for sample testing, you can purchase the full version to unlock the time limitation.

Spotify vs. Pandora

Launched in 2008, Spotify has grown into one of the most popular music streaming companies in the entire world. Its sleek interface and remarkable music discovery features have given it the success it enjoys today. Pandora started with the idea of creating a personalized radio station for each of its subscribers and powered its platform with what’s known as the Music Genome Project. Pandora’s subscribers enjoy creating multiple radio stations and finding new music through its Music Genome Project. Pandora is only available in the U.S. and in 2019 Sirius Radio acquired the service.

Spotify Premium vs. Pandora Premium Overview

Spotify and Pandora offer free service tiers ideal for the casual listener seeking a radio-like experience. The difference between these two choices lies mostly in features like discovery and social sharing.

Interface and usability

Pandora has a user-friendly interface designed for simple access that’s easily traversable. Its mobile app is similar to the desktop design’s sleek appearance. Simply access your library, profile, and music discovery features sprawled across the bottom of your screen. Pandora takes into account your song and playlist choices by identifying your patterns of use and presenting future tracks based on your clicks. It’s also compatible with numerous devices, including your smartphone, TV, wearables, and more. And when it comes to offline mode, simply download your favorite stations to listen whenever you’re away from WiFi or in an out-of-service area.

In Spotify’s mobile app, the settings tab is located at the top right corner of your screen. From there you’re able to view your profile, alter your music quality, crossfade between songs, among many more features. Its menu is positioned across the bottom of the screen where you can access your library, search songs, or navigate to your home screen. It pairs with several devices including your smartphone, PlayStation 4, smart speakers, and so much more. You can also download up to 10,000 songs for offline mode.

Normal Vs High Spotify Download Quality Music

Music discovery

Spotify Music Quality Very High

Spotify’s world-renown discovery playlists, including “Discover Weekly” and “Daily Mix,” help listeners find new songs and artists. Spotify’s algorithm introduces tracks based on your previous likes, skips, and dislikes and exposes you to songs and artists you’ve never experienced before. While Spotify’s playlists are essential for many subscribers, it’s Pandora’s Music Genome Project that shines in this category. Using more than 450 attributes to describe songs, along with a complex mathematical algorithm to organize them, the Music Genome Project stimulates Pandora’s discovery with surgical precision. Choose a few songs, and Pandora will effortlessly fill the rest of your station with music you’re sure to like.

Social sharing

Due to the accessibility of Spotify’s free version, you can freely recommend artists, or share your favorite songs and playlists with your friends. With Pandora, you can share your favorite stations on Facebook and Twitter, but not to the same effect. Since its stations are locked behind its subscription service, you must be a member to enjoy — not the most conducive method for social sharing. With Spotify, you can share individual songs across Facebook, Reddit, Skype, Twitter, and other social platforms. And sharing is simple, just click on the three dots located to the right and choose your sharing options.

The best value

Spotify’s free tier is an incredible value that provides access to its vast music library, discovery features, and social sharing tools. When using Spotify’s desktop application as a free user, you also enjoy access to any of your favorite songs without shuffling like the mobile app. By comparison, Pandora offers two ad-free, subscription tiers — Pandora Plus and Pandora Premium — with Plus costing just $5 per month. So, if you don’t want to shell out $9.99 per month, you can choose either Pandora’s or Spotify’s cheaper alternative and still avoid ads altogether.

The Bottom Line

Pandora and its Music Genome Project provide an impressive approach to music discovery. With its complex algorithm, Pandora may enhance your scope of songs and artists based on your current selection of tracks making its service a good option for music discovery. If you want the best free music option, listen to music on a wide range of devices, or appreciate connectivity with friends, you can’t go wrong with Spotify.

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