If you’re a music lover, then you know that streaming music is a great way to get access to the latest and greatest tunes. But what if you want to listen to some of the best music out there without having to leave your living room? That’s where Spotify comes in. Spotify offers a wide variety of songs and albums that can be streamed at any time, so you can get lost in the music without having to worry about where you left off. Plus, with its ad-free experience, Spotify is perfect for those who don’t want to spend any money on advertising. So how do you get started with streaming music on Spotify? Here are some tips:

  1. Sign up for an account and create an account if you don’t have one already. This will give you access to all of Spotify’s features, including creating playlists and subscribing to new songs and albums.
  2. Choose your favorite genre of music and start streaming! If you’re a fan of rock or hip-hop, then start streaming those tunes! If you’re more into classical or jazz, then go for it! Just make sure that your favorite songs are in the playlist so that they can be easily accessed when needed.
  3. Listen while working or studying! When listening to music while doing something else (like studying), it can help keep your focus on what you’re doing instead of getting lost in the tracklisting on Spotify. Plus, it’s always good practice for listening to music while working out!

With Spotify Premium, you get access to higher quality music streaming. By default (and if you’re on the free plan), Spotify streams at 96kbps on mobile and 160kbps on your computer. At these sort of bitrates, you’ll hear a small but noticeable drop in quality compared to a CD.

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With Premium, however, you can stream tracks at up to 320kbps; that’s pretty much the gold standard of lossy bitrates and most people can’t reliably tell the difference between it and a lossless format like a CD.

If you’re curious, check out this test from NPR. It presents you with the same track in three formats: a 128kbps MP3, a 320kbps MP3, and an uncompressed WAV. You just have to select the highest quality track from the selection. While I could pretty easily avoid the lowest quality track, I wasn’t able to pick between 320kbps and lossless with any consistency.

Want to get your Spotify tracks at that higher, 320kbps quality? Here’s how.

On Mobile

Open Spotify, go to the Your Library tab and tap settings icon in the top right. On iOS, select Music Quality. On Android, scroll down until you find it.

Spotify has three different audio qualities available on mobile: Normal (96kbps), High (160kbps), and Extreme (320kbps). There’s also an Automatic option that will dynamically adjust the bitrate based on your network quality and what kind of network you’re on.

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You can set one audio quality for streaming and another for tracks you download. Remember, the higher the bitrate the more data you will use while streaming and the more space the tracks will take up when downloaded.

My own personal choice is High for Streaming and Extreme for Downloads. I feel this strikes the best balance between having high quality music while still being able to stream over cellular data in most places without any issues.

On the Desktop

Open Spotify, click the downward facing arrow next to your username and select Settings.

Under Music Quality, turn on High Quality Streaming.

This enables streaming at 320kbps.