As Spotify becomes available on more and more platforms as well as getting a richer feature set, we need to ensure that 'core' doesn't become 'a little bit of everything'. This has meant breaking out certain features, such as playback control, into their own separate modules. Ultimately, Spotify’s low-cost is what keeps me subscribed. It’s just $10 per month on the individual plan, which affords ad-free listening, offline downloads, and on-demand playback. Spotify’s library hosts over 50 million songs, which is 10 million less than Tidal but 10 million more than Google Play Music. This forces Spotify to use a higher quality for certain devices, especially if you’re using Spotify with good audio equipment. To do this in the Spotify app on Windows or Mac, you’ll need to open the “Preferences” menu. To do this on Mac, click Spotify Preferences from the menu bar.

1. Install Spotify App
2. Spotify Desktop App Equalizer
3. Download Spotify Desktop App
4. Spotify Desktop App Low Quality Music

Being called a “jack of all trades” is seldom a compliment, but it’s that precise generalist approach that keeps me subscribed to Spotify. Whether you’re a music fanatic or casual listener, Spotify will work for you. Audio quality may not be the best, but I don’t prioritize that on a daily basis. Instead, I’m championing Spotify for its social, intuitive, and cross-platform functionality.

Editor’s note: this article was updated on October 7, 2020, to include a poll about readers’ favorite music streaming services.

Music discovery is silly simple

Spotify’s curated playlists are more hit than miss.

The number one reason I use Spotify over all other music streaming services is its top-notch discovery playlists and suggestions. Sure, Spotify’s algorithms don’t always nail it—especially if you share a single account with others—but more often than not, it impresses users with how intimately it understands their musical preferences. Not only is this something that I’ve discussed with my friends, but it often sparks entertaining Twitter threads. In fact, sometimes those digital discourses make their way onto subway cars. Spotify did just his with as a Dave Horowitz’ tweet:

.@Spotify a friend in NYC just informed me that this tweet has reached the highest heights: dirty subway ad! pic.twitter.com/I1rLT7cpHf

— dave horwitz (@Dave_Horwitz) June 21, 2016

Suggestions go beyond the personalized Discover Weekly playlist, though. Spotify also curates a Release Radar playlist every week, which it loads up with new music from artists-of-interest. Every Monday, I deliberately get through both of these complementary playlists. After all, it’s hard to find good, new music while keeping tabs on your favorite artists, both of which Spotify handles effectively.

Spotify keeps listeners listening with its Discover and Release Radar playlists.

Listeners who want to put a little elbow grease into finding new music can wade through any number of artist and song-specific radio stations. Frankly, I’m new to this feature but use it on a weekly basis. Sometimes I really dig one or two songs by a band but am not a huge fan of their oeuvre. When this happens, I leave it up to the given station to float similar artists to the surface.

You can also create radio stations of all your favorites, including podcasts.Spotify offers three Premium plans: one for students at $4.99/month, one for individuals that costs $6.99/month, and a family plan (for up to 6 members) costing $14.99/month.If these monthly membership fees are still too much to pay, you can get a premium plan for free using one of the methods below. /get-spotify-premium-free-iphone-2016.html.

Spotify makes it easy to switch between music and podcast media from the user library.

Sometimes I don’t want to listen to all-new or all-familiar music, which is when I click through the Daily Mix playlists. These are unending playlists filled with music by followed artists alongside similar artists. It’s great for when I don’t want a tacky mood playlist but want to hear a consistent, similar sound. I used these a lot when I lived in Atlanta and my weeks were filled with driving.

Again, these playlists don’t hit it out of the park every day or week, but they do a better job than any other music service I’ve used, including Pandora. Anyone with an insatiable appetite for music will appreciate the efforts Spotify goes through to fine-tune its algorithm and keep listeners listening. For listeners willing to go the extra mile, there are even craftier ways to find new music abound.

Social features are deceptively useful

You can only view friends’ activities through the desktop application.

The “friend activity” column makes it easy to see what your best friends and frenemies are rocking out to. This adds another dimension to music discovery: the social aspect. Not only can you surreptitiously creep on what your friends are listening to, but it also serves as an easy ice breaker for reaching out to distant friends. For instance, if a friend I haven’t spoken to in a few months is listening to an album I enjoy, I try to fire off a text asking how they like the album and seeing how they’ve been. While rekindled friendships are a triumph of Spotify’s friend activity section, I’d be remiss without mentioning how fun it is to see the musical guilty pleasures my friends have, too. The main drawback to this is that it’s only available on the desktop app, and doesn’t appear to be making its way to the mobile app anytime soon.

I love sharing music with others, and doing so is effortless with Spotify.

Spotify also affords listeners the ability to create collaborative playlists. Not all streaming services allow this functionality, which is a shame. I mean, really, what better way to prepare for a road trip with your friends than with a single assemblage of tasteless throwbacks?

Music integration on social apps

Yeah, that little green circle has made waves since its release and is the most well-integrated music streaming app available. Do you think your Instagram Story could use a little underscoring? The Instagram Story music widget is powered by Spotify. Is it important for you to know someone’s musical taste before giving up a precious right-swipe? Spotify enables that, too, on dating apps like Tinder and Bumble. If nothing else, it’s a fun way to add flair to your social media presence.

Find nearby concerts

I was able to photograph Aaron West, because Spotify made me aware of his then-upcoming show.

Install Spotify App

Music doesn’t get more social than going to concerts and festivals: Spotify makes it easy to keep track of upcoming concerts for any artists you follow. From the desktop application, go to “browse.” Then select “concerts,” which is the furthest tab on the right header. The next window opens with a chronological list of nearby concerts. Clicking on a specific concert reveals the date, time, and place of the show. The “find tickets” button opens a window in your default browser, so you can get tickets on the spot. It’s a little clunky, but works well, and is a great way to get an aerial view of upcoming shows.

User interface is everything

Spotify has the most attractive user interface, and certainly outperforms YouTube Music’s UI; its all-black design makes it easy for the eye to identify what’s important on the page. Navigation is easy due to the straightforward layout that logically breaks content up into three broad categories (“home,” “search,” and “your library”). Spotify’s system uses a logical hierarchy with headers and album art in the Home tab.

It’s the little functional tricks that keep this as my go-to streaming app. With the “now playing window” open, I frequently swipe the album art to skip a track. Once the command is registered, a smooth animation plays, moving the album in tandem with the finger-swipe. Sure, I could just use the playback iconographs, but this just feels smooth. While Amazon Music HD has the same functionality, it just doesn’t look as neat; plus, the command isn’t always registered. As for Tidal, it lacks this ability altogether. Instead, swiping album art pulls up the song queue.

Spotify car view reduces distractions

Car view simplifies the interface, so distractions are lessened.

My car doesn’t have Android Auto but even so, Spotify recognizes when my Samsung Galaxy S10e is connected to my car and automatically enters “car view.” This mode minimizes distractions and displays only the necessities to users: album art and the options button on the “now playing” screen are no longer visible. This places emphasis on driving, rather than messing around on one’s phone during stops. If your car and device are compatible, you can use either Apple CarPlay or Android Auto with Spotify.

Google Chromecast Audio integration

Spotify

Not only is direct Spotify access available from virtually every smart speaker on the market, but the desktop and mobile Spotify applications both support Chromecast Audio. This means you can cast audio playback to a nearby smart speaker from the Spotify app. There are other ways to connect, too, you can stream to computers, TVs, gaming consoles, and Bluetooth devices all without leaving the Spotify app. I use this all the time, frequently switching between my apartment Sonos, true wireless earbuds, and PlayStation 4. Its performance is consistent, and almost always makes a successful connection on the first try.

Low price, high return

Amazon Music HD costs $8/mo for Prime members, but its app isn’t as fleshed out and discovery suggestions aren’t nearly as satisfying.

Ultimately, Spotify’s low-cost is what keeps me subscribed. It’s just $10 per month on the individual plan, which affords ad-free listening, offline downloads, and on-demand playback. Spotify’s library hosts over 50 million songs, which is 10 million less than Tidal but 10 million more than Google Play Music. For just $10 a month, I have access to all the music my ears could want and numerous ways to discover new artists.

As of July 1, 2020, Spotify Duo Premium expansion includes support in the United States, India, and dozens of other markets, totalling 55 markets. This requires a monthly payment of $12.99, and keeps both users independent accounts along with the saved music and playlists associated with each account.

Spotify is the only service to offer a free, ad-supported version of its service to listeners, making it the most accessible service to listeners of all financial backgrounds. Yes, others offer free-trial periods like Spotify, but others automatically rope users into a subscription unless it’s cancelled prior to the trial period ending.

Spotify integrates well into social media applications like Instagram.

Although audio quality isn’t the best, Ogg Vorbis 320kbps streaming is nothing to turn your nose up at. If you want high-resolution FLAC audio files, you’ll have to pay extra for something like Amazon Music HD or Tidal. If you’re concerned about Spotify underpaying artists per stream, you may want to turn your attention to another service. Unfortunately, low payout rates are a systemic issue across the board of music streaming services. Listeners who really want to support their favorite artists are likely already doing so by attending concerts, buying merch, purchasing music.

Although Spotify has its drawbacks as SoundGuys’ own Sam Moore points out in his in-depth review, it’s a great service and one that continues to satisfy users month after month. It’s the generalist’s music app and does everything very well, albeit not perfectly. Until others figure out a way to smoothly introduce social features and improve their respective music suggestion algorithms, I’ll be keeping that green dot on my phone’s home screen.

You may also like

Jul 22,2019 • Filed to: Streaming Music Services & Sites Tips • Proven solutions

Do you know how to set the Spotify extreme quality ?

Most of us like streaming music on Spotify. So we might be concerned more about the Spotify sound quality. Sound quality is very important when listening to music. A great sound quality of a song can enhance your listening experience. So if you are looking for a streaming music program, you want to make sure that you choose one that offers the quality you need. This is another area where Spotify excels, offering a Spotify extreme quality sound option to allow customers to get the most out of their Spotify experience.

One of Spotify’s operating principles is the idea of giving the consumer the most choice possible. No two people are like and not everyone will have the same needs and Spotify aims to give their customers choices. This is why Spotify as multi-levels of membership options and is available on a very of different platforms. It is also why Spotify now offers three levels of sound quality for mobile users.

Part 1. Download Music from 3000+ Music Sites Without Quality Loss

To enjoy Spotify extreme quality sound, we recommend you to download and record the Spotify music and keep its original quality. To do so, you can get help from iMusic. iMusic downloader pro allows you to download music from over 3000 music sites and record any song you can play on your computer with original music quality. While doing the recording, the software will get the identification of the song automatically, including artist, genre, cover, album name, and more. Put it in a word, iMusic helps you download wanted music and record any song you can't download as well.

iMusic - Best Music Downloader You Deserve to Own

• Download unlimited free music from Spotify, Pandora, Grooveshark, Napster, etc. with 100% original quality.
• Automatically filter Ads and download music in high quality MP3 or M4A.
• Record music and get music info like artists, album, and more automatically.
• Allow you to transfer downloaded and recorded music to iPhone, Android phones, iPod, iPad, USB flash drive, create car playlists, and burn to CDs.
• Backup, rebuild, repair or transfer iTunes Library easily even in a Windows PC.
• Ability to burn downloaded songs and playlists to CDs .

Tutorial to Download Spotify Music Easily by iMusic

Step 1. Launch iMusic

If you don’t have iMusic program, simply go to the download webpage , download it and install in your computer. It supports both Windows and Mac system. Start iMusic program to display the main window.

Step 2. Copy and Paste the Spotify URL

Navigate to the “Get Music” window and subsequently click the “Download”. Within this page, there is a URL paste box and access to hot common download platforms such as YouTube, Spotify, and Vevo among others. Tab to open spotify and search the song to download within spotify site. When you find the respective song, just copy the URL and go back to the iMusic program.

Locate the “Paste URL” box within the iMusic primary window and paste the respective URL code for the Spotify song you just copied. After pasting, choose the output media file format like MP3 and MP4. When you are satisfied with your selections, just click the “Download” button commence the download process. Thereafter you can transfer the downloaded spotify songs to other devices without any difficulties.

Step 3. Check Downloaded Songs on iTunes Library

After finish downloading Spotify songs, the downloaded songs will automatically go into your iTunes library, you also could see it in iMusic's iTunes library.

Spotify Desktop App Equalizer

Spotify offers low, high and extreme sound quality settings. The normal Spotify bitrate setting is 96 kbps, the high quality bitrate is 160 kbps and extreme is 320kbps. Until recently, extreme quality was only available on Spotify’s desktop program, but it is now available for iOS as well. This allows listeners to control the quality of music they are accessing on the go, which is important since that is when a lot of people are most likely to listen to music as they are travelling.

Streaming your music on Spotify Extreme gives you a very high quality sound. Extreme makes the music sound great, even when using your iPhone’s normal speaker. Using Spotifys extreme setting is the best way to improve sound quality on a device with lower quality speakers. You can use the extreme setting anywhere, even on state of the art speakers it will still make the music sound crisper and better, but the difference is really noticeable with lower speaker quality.

One thing to keep in mind though, is that the higher the Spotify quality setting, the more data it uses up. It takes more download power to stream music at 320kbps than it does at 96 kbps. If you have a lower quality internet connection or you are using the data on your cell phone, you may have some issues trying to connect to the extreme speed setting. Some users have found that areas where their cell signal strength was low they could not even access extreme quality.

Spotify offers three different levels of streaming quality for a reason. Spotify Extreme may be the most appealing for many people, since it offers the highest quality sound, but it might not be the right choice for everyone. If you have a bandwidth on your internet service, you may also want to consider which level of speed that you use as using extreme will use up your bandwidth faster than using normal or high would. You should consider your own needs and bandwidth limitations before deciding which speed setting is right for you, it’s one of the reasons Spotify offers a choice, because they know that no option is right for everyone.

Part 3. How to Set Spotify Bitrate

Step 1: Spotify extreme quality is only available to Spotify Premium users. If you have a Premium account and are using an iOS device, than you have three options for sound quality. You can choose between low bandwidth, high quality and extreme. You can access your options in your Spotify settings. You can choose which option works best for you and you have the freedom to switch between different settings as your needs change.

Step 2: For Spotify desktop users, there are two different levels of sound quality. Spotify desktop services runs via Wi-Fi, so the assumption is that signal strength and quality is more consistent than it is with a mobile device and there is less need for a low quality sound option. Spotify Premium members are given the choice between normal and high bit rate, so either 160 kbps or 320 kbps. You can change your sound quality by clicking on sound in your Spotify preferences. You can consider your speaker quality, listening needs and bandwidth limitations and decided which level of sound quality works best for you.

Is Spotify Sound Quality Good Enough?

For many music fans sound quality is incredibly important. However, what makes up good sound quality is incredibly subjective. When looking for opinions on whether users were happy with the sound quality Spotify offers, here were some typical responses:

• - “I've been on Premium for 5 months and generally the music quality is very good.”
• - “By and large, very impressed and have been a Premium user for over a year now.”
• - “I used to be on Spotify Premium and whilst the sound quality was OK, I don't think it is good enough as a main source in a good quality system.”
• - “I think Spotify is fine for discovering new music. And for low-volume background listening.”
• - “Yes, I am (impressed with the sound quality). 90% of the time it's absolutely good enough.”
• - “It's brilliant for the price.”
• - “I am impressed with Spotify’s sound quality. Spotify premium is the same as a cd for me.”
• - “Higher bitrate is only interesting when you connect your Spotify to a proper audio system.”
• - “It is fairly hard to tell the difference between 160 kbps and 320 kbps on most albums.”
• - “I have 1243 albums on my server, but most of the time I am actually listening to Spotify.”

The consensus seems to be that Spotify’s quality, particularly Spotify Extreme, is pretty good. It may not be as good as the highest quality sound system, but for an online streaming music site, Spotify’s quality is top notch. It seems a lot of users are extremely satisfied with the sound quality that they get from Spotify.

How to Improve Spotify Sound Quality?

Download Spotify Desktop App

You can control your bitrate level and make sure you are maximizing your sound experience, but that is not the only factor that determines the quality of your listening experience. To get the best quality sound from Spotify, you need to have a good, reliable internet connection that can handle the faster download rate. The level of sound quality also depends on your equipment. You are going to get a better sound quality if you’re listening with high quality speakers, than you are listening through ear buds on your iPhone.

Spotify Desktop App Low Quality Music

Spotify gives you options to control your sound quality, but there also external factors. To make the most of your Spotify experience, you have to make sure you have the right set up and equipment to capitalize on the improved sound quality. If you do, then you will be able to have the Spotify listening experience you are looking for.