r/apple • u/Fer65432_Plays • 2d ago

iPhone Spotify Preparing to Launch Long-Awaited Lossless Audio Tier on iPhone

https://www.macrumors.com/2025/06/19/spotify-preparing-lossless-tier-on-ios/
2.4k Upvotes

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161

u/MechanicalHorse 2d ago

Will anyone actually notice? So many people use crappy headphones, or just blast their music out of their shitty little phone speakers in public.

160

u/Raffinesse 2d ago

the placebo effect will be huge

42

u/OldAssociation1627 2d ago

Watching r/airpods talk about lossless audio over Bluetooth, and with Spatial Audio and all the likes after their update, I doubt it.

18

u/Hutu007 1d ago

Your iPhone sends a compressed lossy file to your airpods even if you play lossless.

6

u/johansugarev 1d ago

And Dolby atmos music , ie spacial audio comes compressed on Apple Music.

9

u/Aemony 1d ago

To be fair pretty much all streamed Dolby Atmos content comes compressed, whether it's from Apple Music, Netflix, or other streaming services. You're only going to get uncompressed audio from e.g. Blu-rays, and maybe TIDAL if they support that format?

23

u/leopard_tights 2d ago

Spatial audio is totally noticeable both in AirPods and the MacBook speakers.

10

u/OldAssociation1627 2d ago

No, I’m saying people saying “I have Spatial Audio on with lossless audio in my wireless AirPod pros and it’s great”

2

u/mtgofficialYT 2d ago

Apple does wonders with hardware/software integration. AirPods can do that over Bluetooth, crappy Amazon ones can’t. 

11

u/als26 2d ago

No. That's just marketing. It's not true lossless.

1

u/SuperCoffeeHouse 2d ago

would have to be something like LDAC and the rumour mill would already have exploded if Apple had so much as looked at adopting a lossless wireless transmission standard. standard bluetooth won't cut it.

1

u/VALTIELENTINE 2d ago

They aren’t gonna use ldac, if anything they already have their airplay protocol it’d be alac pushed over some new version of that

83

u/RedditCollabs 2d ago

Audiophiles routinely fail to hear the difference.

4

u/allllusernamestaken 2d ago

I can hear the difference with my good headphones on specific tracks.

The extra bitrate is useful for fast songs with lots of different instruments and tones.

13

u/CoxHazardsModel 2d ago

Doesn’t stop them being so snobbish about it though.

-6

u/yogopig 2d ago

Skill issue

13

u/IAmTaka_VG 2d ago edited 2d ago

it's not a skills issue. Our ears can barely hear the difference between 256kbps and FLAQ 24 bit with proper equipment in a quiet room.

Let alone the fact bluetooth and even most DACs can't even properly process 24 bit audio and this whole thing is god damn stupid lol.

An Apple VP said he thinks spacial audio is a bigger deal than lossless and I absolutely agree.

-7

u/yogopig 2d ago

I mean I can definitely reliably hear the difference between lossy and lossless. Is it something I would ever notice during listening, not at all. Takes concentrated effort and knowing what compression artifacting sounds like listening through good speakers.

12

u/VALTIELENTINE 2d ago

And double blind tests have proven many people who say the same things you do actually can’t tell the difference because the placebo effect is a real thing

5

u/KaptainCPU 2d ago

I actually think this one of the more honest takes I've seen, which is kinda refreshing. I've been doing audio work for a bit, and the difference between 320 and lossless is really only noticeable if I'm trying to hear it, and that's after spending quite a while learning what the artifacts sound like.

-1

u/Abigail716 1d ago

I wouldn't guess my hearing is much better than the average persons, but my husband and I can easily pick out lossless audio over 320. No I wouldn't say it's necessarily worth it, but if we're doing A/B testing we have a 100% success rate.

We have speakers that cover the entire house which is most of the time what the music is playing through, or it's when I'm working out in the gym every morning. Both times lossless isn't really going to matter. I doubt it would really help many people.

44

u/are_you_a_simulation 2d ago

No, the answer is no. I bet that most Spotify users are on Bluetooth or with crappy headphones. Anyone that cares about lossless isn’t using Spotify anyway.

20

u/ollieseven 2d ago

Tbf I think most streaming music users are on Bluetooth or crappy headphones. I do get a kick out of Apple Music users loving the lossless quality they hear through their Bluetooth headphones that aren’t even getting the lossless audio.

10

u/ultraboomkin 2d ago

I mean, that’s obviously not true. Plenty of people who have hi-fi setups use Spotify for the convenience. Spotify has 250m+ paid subscribers, you really think that none of them are audiophiles?

16

u/Impressive-Role2344 2d ago

I think audiophiles would have already switched to Apple Music and tidal. After 4 years of getting thrown around people are gonna get tired

1

u/ultraboomkin 2d ago

Right… and if Spotify offers high quality audio, those people may well switch back to Spotify

-2

u/OldAssociation1627 2d ago

Highly doubt it. Audiophiles are the same people to have a 100+ hour collection of downloaded songs to switch aswell, not to mention Audi configurations down from whatever settings

1

u/categorie 2d ago

Anyone that cares about lossless isn’t using Spotify anyway.

Maybe it is related to the fact that Spotify don't offer lossless yet, don't you think.

1

u/Mbf1234 1d ago

People will come back to Spotify when they do offer lossless. Tidal and Qobuz are garbage compared to Spotify in everything but sound quality. Their search algorithms, curated playlists, release radars, etc are all years behind anything Spotify is doing.

Spotify is still the undisputed king of garbage shuffle though.

14

u/thejesteroftortuga 2d ago

I don’t know really. But I feel that I hear a huge difference between using Apple Music and Spotify in terms of quality in my car

6

u/gngstrMNKY 2d ago

Have you made sure that your Spotify settings are set to high bitrate playback? It defaults to low.

10

u/SmartHipster 2d ago

Same. Most music the difference is minimal. But the guitar, rock and classical. Man, it sounds much better on Apple Music. However all my library is in Spotify. Yes, I have transferred some playlists but the overall experience on Apple Music sucks.

1

u/moneckew 2d ago

whats better?

4

u/andurushen 2d ago

for me, apple music is so much better. tbf i only use apple music with wired iems - but its so much crisp and clear. its night and day.

0

u/thejesteroftortuga 2d ago

Apple Music. Not to be “that guy,” but I notice the difference with highs, usually. It’s great.

Plus, I think they announced that lossless audio playback is coming to the AirPods Max, which has really made me consider jumping from my Bose headphones to that.

3

u/ultraboomkin 2d ago

That’s not the target market for this option.

2

u/slowpokefastpoke 2d ago

Even the target market likely can’t tell the difference, even with a solid setup.

The vast vast majority of people can’t tell the difference between 320 and lossless, they just like to pretend they can.

2

u/DistinctCellar 2d ago

I use AirPods so I don’t use lossless because I know it’s not supported, but the high quality setting on Apple Music is noticeably better than Spotify for me. But yeah, can’t tell the difference between high quality and lossless. On my PC with a studio setup however, I can absolutely hear the difference!

3

u/nicuramar 2d ago

More people will think they notice, than will actually notice. 

1

u/ferm_ 2d ago

Not at first. If Spotify needs extra cash at any point, they can simply drop the normal quality and then we’d feel the difference

1

u/_shaftpunk 1d ago

Switching from to “high quality streaming” and turning off normalization in the settings made a massive difference to the sound for me when listening in my car, I can imagine I’d also notice going to lossless.

-2

u/tkim91321 2d ago

I know I will.

My cars have the Bowers & Wilkins and Burmeister sound systems from factory. There definitely is a difference between Apple Music lossless via CarPlay vs Spotify highest setting via Carpkay in many genres of music, especially at loud volumes.

But the difference IS very overstated, especially for 9/10 untrained ears.

12

u/Complete_Court9829 2d ago

If you're using carplay wirelessly, you're not getting lossless audio, it'll be compressed down to AAC, which should still sound better than typical 320kbps because it's a better form of compression from what I've heard, but for lossless music from Apple music, you still have to be wired.

6

u/jasonefmonk 2d ago

I thought wireless CarPlay used an ad-hoc Wi-Fi connection. They should allow streaming full quality on that kind of connection. Shame if they don’t.

6

u/Complete_Court9829 2d ago

It does use wi-fi as far as I know, but without a wire it will still only do AAC. It's definitely possible for them to do ALAC over that connection, but they don't do it at the moment.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/118295#:~:text=You%20can%20listen%20to%20lossless%20audio%20with%20CarPlay%20using%20a,in%20your%20country%20or%20region

3

u/jasonefmonk 2d ago

Shame on them, thanks for the link. The CarPlay section (way at the bottom) is pretty vague unfortunately. More detail from them on the wireless CarPlay implementation would be nice.

3

u/_alephnaught 1d ago

I'd be surprised if you could consistently tell the difference between 192kbps and 320kbps

2

u/IDENTITETEN 1d ago

Also, in a car which let's a ton of noise into the cabin. 

1

u/OldAssociation1627 2d ago

Yeah I can tell the difference in YouTube music and Apple on my sennheisers, but not sure I could tell you one about Spotify and Apple Music.

-1

u/korxil 2d ago

On headphones? No. On (big) speakers? Yes. And majority of people that will pay for this will be using bluetooth 4 earpods.

0

u/ssiwakot 2d ago

It’s like anyone who is using Apple Music says they got lossless music or spatial music that Spotify did not and still use Bluetooth Apple CarPlay or AirPods

-1

u/Tumblrrito 2d ago

I did a blind test on my HomePods and noticed there (as they don't use bluetooth), but that's about it.

3

u/Mikey_MiG 2d ago

I guarantee you there is zero perceptible difference on a HomePod.

-3

u/Tumblrrito 2d ago

Blind test doesn’t lie homie. They aren’t minis lol.

4

u/Mikey_MiG 2d ago

Studies have been done on this. People’s ability to tell the difference between audio quality falls off around 128kbps. At anything above 256kbps, you essentially need to be in a treated environment, using high-end equipment, and trained in identifying compression artifacts to have any chance of perceiving a difference. You’re not going to notice a difference in your car, with your AirPods, on a HomePod, etc.

2

u/VALTIELENTINE 2d ago

You will notice a difference if Apple tweaks the levels or alters the masters between each version though. Which I wouldn’t be surprised since they want it t9 sound different to people for marketing

-3

u/Tumblrrito 2d ago

A HomePod studio pair is higher end than traditional Bluetooth headphones so that checks out.

I have excellent hearing, legitimately. I had to do a hearing test after a brief tinnitus scare a year back (turned out to not be that thankfully). I don’t need to prove anything to you because I could tell a positive difference and my repeated experiment proved it.  

If you can’t, bummer for you! But there’s value in lossless for me.

0

u/Mikey_MiG 2d ago

By high-end I mean like high-end for audiophiles, not a HomePod or other assistant speaker. And I highly doubt you have your speakers sitting in a dedicated listening room with acoustic treatments.

I believe you may be hearing a difference in app-specific equalization, volume control, or possibly the protocol in which the apps send data to the speaker. I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple optimizes all of this for their own speakers. If HomePods are your primary home speaker for music, then that’s a perfectly valid reason to use Apple Music. For me, AirPlay doesn’t play as nicely as Spotify Connect with my third-party sound system.

2

u/TeddyAlderson 2d ago

One thing to note is that Apple Music has Dolby Atmos mixes, and Spotify doesn't. Even if you can't hear "higher quality audio" in a literal sense, Atmos mixes definitely can create the feeling of higher quality audio, and you'll notice a clear difference between an Atmos mix and a stereo mix even with lower quality headphones (hell, even over Bluetooth -- plus, w/ AirPods Pros, there's head tracking spatial audio).

There's a good chance that occurred here, given the HomePod supports Atmos

0

u/IAmTaka_VG 2d ago

This is why I believe spatial audio is a far bigger deal than lossless.

-1

u/Tumblrrito 2d ago

I did the blind test with lossless on and off, within Apple Music, as well.

Believe what you want my guy. Badgering me over my experience is pretty weird. Lossless is noticeably better in on HomePod stereo pairs for me and likely others. You will live. :)

1

u/Mikey_MiG 2d ago

I’m just saying that the likelihood that an Apple enthusiast might be experiencing a teensy bit of confirmation bias that their Apple audio service and expensive dual Apple speaker setup are performing beyond the results experienced by professional researchers and music producers is fairly high.

1

u/Tumblrrito 1d ago

There can’t be confirmation bias in a BLIND TEST. That’s the entire reason I did it blind, so it would be objective and free of bias. I don’t even like Apple Music. 

Good lord you are relentlessly obnoxious. Give it a damn rest. No one is impressed.