what is the audio format and bitrate of web player streaming (Premium)?

[S3ndG]

Hello,

I would like to know what is the quality of the audio streaming via the web player.

Is it the same than the desktop app?

Thanks!

[Hubo · Accepted solution]

Hey and welcome to the community!

The highest available bitrate for the web player is ~160 kbps. You can read more about Spotify bitrates here. 

Good luck!

[S3ndG]

Okay so I have switched to the desktop player for windows and I have set the parameter to "high quality audio"(premium).

But when I activate it I can hear no difference between normal and high quality mode. 😞

And I have good monitors and very good ears.

What is the problem? I made tests with "enter sandman" and "st anger" titles from Metallica.

thanks.

[Hubo]

Have you tried restarting your computer after changing the setting? Sometimes your desktop app just needs a refresh.

[S3ndG]

I have restarted the computer and it changed nothing...

I have bad quality (not 320 kbits/s) with these two songs even when high quality is active.

On the other hand I have compared mp3 songs in 320 kbits/s from an album of the french artist - M - and it sounds better.

It's strange and I suppose you have no idea to improve Metallica audio quality 😉

[Hubo]

Nope, I'm sorry, I think some songs aren't available in high quality. I'm indeed not able to change Metellica's audio quality. Have a nice day! 🙂

[Dorstlesser]

You won't notice a lot of difference with those tracks. The most noticeable difference between low and hi bitrates will be for the (high) treble sounds. In the tracks you mentioned, a lot of the high treble is guitar distortion, which from the perspective of the audio codec is fairly similar to white noise. White noise sounds relatively similar no matter how it is encoded, so metal is not really a good genre for selling high fidelity audio. Try it with more mellow tracks, especially tracks with prominent vocals, string sections or lush harmonies. Daft Punk's album 'Discovery' has a lot of layered harmonies that extend well into the high treble, and I find it is very easy to hear the difference there.

Also, in addition to good monitors (and good ears) a good DAC and/or amp can make a big difference in my experience, even for low bitrate files. Usually PCs/laptops/phones don't have great DAC on board. The Audioquest Dragonfly Black is a great budget DAC.