Music quality is among the most important things that an avid music listener will look into when selecting a music streaming service. The comparison is mostly based on relation to the original track. The best music quality will be viewed in the bit-rate and pitch among many others. The bitrate is a term that you will definitely hear around circles of music lovers who stream their music from various streaming services such as Spotify. So what is the bitrate and what bitrate does Spotify use? Let's have a glimpse into it.
The Bitrate: What Is It?
When playing music or any audio file, the bitrate is the unit denoting the amount of data or bits that are processed over a specified amount of time. In most settings, the bitrate is expressed per second as a unit hence you will see abbreviations such as kbps which is kilobits per second as expressed per a thousand bits. If a particular tune from a streaming service indicates that it has a bitrate of 320 kbps, it roughly translates to a bitrate of 320 bits of audio information to be played in a second.
The higher the bitrate the better the audio quality and also the video quality if there's one. This basically means a bitrate of 320kbps is way better in quality than one at 260 kbps.
Spotify Bitrate: What Is the Bitrate of Spotify Music
Spotify is among the most popular streaming services that you can come across. With a vast collection of music on its catalog, it is not difficult to see how it manages to be so beloved. Spotify being a versatile streaming offers various bitrates for subscribers to enjoy. This variance of bitrates is from low, high and extreme quality for your music.
The normal bitrate which is also low is from 96kbps which is mostly for mobile phones and other related gadgets. This is mostly for those on free subscription. This bitrate consumes very low amounts of data due to the audio or video quality. The normal bitrate seldom plays on the desktop or web player.
The high Spotify quality bitrate has a rate of 160kbps which is also the default rate in desktops and web player. The high quality sounds fine and will give you a good experience while bumping to your selected joint. It is also generous on the amount of data it uses and this quality is among the most utilized by Spotify's loyal steamers. This quality on a desktop will be in the standard quality while it will be of high quality on your mobile device.
The extreme quality bitrate from Spotify will offer its subscriber the best quality of the music of up to 320kbps. The Spotify extreme quality is only for the premium subscribers who will partake this superfine elegance in music. The pitch is fine and is almost at par with the original with many subscribers saying there is almost no difference at all. While bumping on the desktop, the music rate will be equal to the high quality while it will be extreme while playing from your mobile phone device. The extreme quality, however, consumes a lot of data due to its high-quality streaming audios.
Spotify has a plan to launch the Spotify Hi-Fi that will be sort of an upgrade from the premium subscription with a lossless audio quality that you can steam at your desired quality with no interruptions.
Setting the Bitrate: How to Set Bitrate on Spotify
Set Spotify Bitrate on Desktop
To set the bitrate on Spotify using desktop client app, you will first be required to sign in to your account with your valid log-in details. Once you have successfully signed in, locate the edit icon which is mostly on the upper left side of the Spotify homepage. Click on it and a drop-down menu will appear. Then click on Preferences, the very last option of this drop-down menu. It will bring you some playback settings, including the bitrate quality in the middle of the window for you to pick.
Set Spotify Bitrate on Mobile
To set the bitrate using mobile device via Spotify mobile app, you will have 3 options, including Extreme Quality (320kbps), Normal Quality (256kbps) and High Quality (160kbps), only if you are a Premium subscriber. If not, you will only have two options which are either Normal or High. You can access these settings in your Spotify settings on your mobile device, such as Android or iOS.
For both Spotify desktop and mobile, only Premium users can choose extreme quality streaming that is 320kbps.
How to Set Spotify Extreme Quality (320kbps) without Premium
Apart from the official solutions provided by Spotify, there are many other alternative ways that could enable you change Spotify audio quality to Extreme at 320kbps, no matter you are using Premium or Free plan. Among them, one of the best tools is ViWizard Spotify Music Converter. It's a dedicated Spotify to MP3 downloader that can help you to rip Spotify to MP3 or lossless FLAC format while preserving the original ID3 tags. With this smart app, you can also reset the Spotify bitrate to 320kbps even if you are using the Free account.
Spotify Quality Settings: How to Improve Spotify Streaming Audio Quality
Another question that is mostly asked by streamers from Spotify, is how to make Spotify quality better. This is to make the audio flow smoother and very audible more so to those who are in for the content and lyrics as they want to get the words all perfect. Apart from using the equalizer and going premium, there are some tweaks that you can employ to make your music quality awesome. Among the ways that you can employ for this are as follows.
Using Spotify Equalizer on Android/iOS
Most media devices come with their preinstalled equalizers that will let you tweak your music to a preferable tune be it jazzy, rock, or house with some hint of acoustic. Spotify, in fact, has introduced its own equalizer as a hidden feature a while back. This equalizer is available for both Android and iOS devices. See: How to Set Spotify Audio Quality with Spotify Equalizer.
Using High Quality Outputs
To be quite frank, you cannot expect beautiful and high-quality music if you have sub-standard or poor quality audio output devices. This is in the headsets you are using or speakers. If they are of poor quality, even joints with a high bitrate will be delivered poorly. Invest in a pair of good headsets and speakers from a credible dealer to enjoy the best in streaming.
Making a Good Data Plan
Music streaming is very dependent on data to support it. If you have a poor plan be prepared for buffering and interruptions while bumping your joints, have a good data plan to enjoy good tunes from Spotify.
Wrap Up
Spotify offers among the best services in music streaming and in such it has to offer the best qualities which it does with its impressive bitrates. However, you can also improve your quality by having the best gadgets to back you up on your musical journey.
Matt Smith is an amateur writer engaged in ViWizard in 2013. He is a movie lover who write a lot of movie reviews for many websites and blogs.
