soundquality

Straight from their FAQ

What bandwidth does Spotify need?
We recommend 256 kbit/s. Spotify usually works well on a 3G connection.

It's not an exact answer but it should give you a hint.

Sorry Za but that really doesn't tell you the bitrate or fileformat.

256 kb/s is for the whole application and they probebly using buffers so it is likely needs atleast 1.2 times the bitrate. It would be nice that spotify anser this so you can compare this to outher appilcations.

The have declared priovusly that they use Ogg Vorbis as the codec.

https://www.spotify.com/blog/archives/2008/07/02/spotify-030/

But the codec does not really say what bit rate they play with <.<.

So does not really help. A codec can have any custom bit rate set to it. So I think an employee must answer this.

HOWEVER, as a Beta tester (and listening to music with Spotify at this very moment), I would say there is nothing to complain about on the sound quality from Spotify. I have tried almost the whole range of streaming programs.... None of them are any where close to Spotify! Spotify is just amazing, and I connect my computer at home to a pretty big sound system (guilty of being a sound enthusiast =P), and I don't hear that its streaming. It just as if its from a CD, and sometimes even better it seems like.

My guess, is that they are using the high quality codec (Ogg Vorbis) with a bitrate of 256 + kb/s. But this is just a guess. However, Kalle says the bit rate must be lower than the bandwidth, but if the server has compressed the files and made high speed unpacking available with the client program the user has, the bitrate can be far higher than the actually bandwidth. But this is just a guess. Hope a employee answers soon, because I have been wondering the same.

Tanks for the answer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorbis

The quality is rather bad, atleast when connected to a highdef reciver, not even close to cd quality as some here have stated. Might be good considered its a steam but that is an other question

yes the quility is not really highdef appropriate. I will not pay for this service until the quiality gets better. and i think the commercial stuff sucks, to old fashion way to earn money. getting sick of that only google can make money with satified customers by thinking two steps ahead. I will drop spotify if they not stop with commercials or boost the quality.

Fippe, I agree about spotify might be the one that changes how people think of owning music. I do really like spotify and would like to pay for it as well, but at first it need to get a better quility to make me pay for it and for the second the business model is just not that sharp as it could be. commercial breaks are like banners on the internet, you get really pist off. What they get money from need to satisfy the consumer and not make them angry.

I guess they know I dont like commercial spots and think I will start to pay for an account. This thinking will not take them above 850 million SEK value.

Even with a cheap hifi-setup like mine I could clearly hear a quality-difference between spotify and itunes (with 160kbit mp3), almost as bad as myspace in audio quality. I canceled my subscription right away.

If you say "currently" does that mean you plan to increase the bit rate to at least 196 or even 256 level in the near future?

For not so long time ago I bought a new soundcard. The sound performance is quite better than when I used the onboard sound chip. But when playing music with Spotify the difference is not what I had thougt.

Or is it just the sound level that fools me?

Just fore an update.
The bitrate is 320 fore premium users.
Just give it time, and showe some intrest.

Zargon:

Can you really hear the difference between 320 kbps Ogg and uncompressed wav?