It’s been a long time coming, but Spotify Lossless is finally here, announced by the company via a post on its For the Record blog.
At long last, lossless audio is coming to Spotify, rolling out gradually over the coming weeks to Premium users and to a further 50 markets in October. To keep listening options open, Spotify’s original Low, Normal, High, and Very High audio quality settings are here to stay.
There’s no doubt that this year has been one of Spotify’s biggest yet, which has seen the addition of a lot of neat features from its Upcoming Releases hub right up to the recent addition of its Mix function. But Spotify Lossless is by far the biggest one this year – and the most important in the history of the music streaming service.
Spotify Lossless has been five years in the making – you heard that right – so naturally, users are swarming the internet to share their thoughts. While some are excited to welcome the arrival of the upgraded audio quality, others have reacted differently – and it’s not as positive as you think.
Again with the select markets…
Right off the bat of Spotify’s big announcement, users have been quick to point out the limitations that may come with the new lossless audio option, addressing Spotify’s decision to limit region availability. As per Spotify’s post, the company states the following:
Lossless is rolling out gradually to more than 50 markets through October. Premium subscribers in Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, the US, and the UK have already started to get access.
This isn’t the first time that Spotify has decided to region-lock a new feature (it was the same case with Mix). Naturally, this has birthed an outpour of frustration…
As well as accusing Spotify of being ‘western-centric’, the vagueness of the announcement is another reason why users are puzzled, mainly because Spotify is gatekeeping its list of countries where Lossless will be available.
“I still don’t have AI DJ”
Region-locking is one thing, but releasing one new feature after the next when a function as basic as AI DJ still isn’t available in some countries is another.
Much like the response to Spotify’s audio-mixing tool, the reaction to Lossless has resulted in users noting the absence of certain features in their region, such as Messages and even AI DJ, which has been around since early 2023.
At first, it seemed as though this was an endeavor for individual users and not necessarily related to specific markets, but more users have jumped on the bandwagon, sharing similar experiences – which leads us to think that market availability does, in fact, affect the accessibility of certain Spotify functions.
Even Spotify subscribers in Sweden still don’t have access to some features – an almost comical display of irony.
It’s difficult to tell how the rollout of Spotify Lossless will go ahead, given the company’s history of blocking access to specific regions, but since it’s Spotify’s biggest switch-up yet, we’d hope that they take this rollout more seriously, lest paying members make the switch to Apple Music.
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rowan.davies@futurenet.com (Rowan Davies)
