Lossless audio has become the standard in music streaming, with most major platforms supporting at least CD-quality tracks. While lossless quality is essential for an immersive listening experience, there are other software tweaks that can instantly improve sound quality. In fact, these settings can enhance your music streaming even without access to lossless quality.

Turn Off Volume Normalization

Volume normalization is a feature that adjusts the volume of a song to match a baseline loudness level. While it may seem like a harmless tweak, it can significantly alter the decibel level of the original master recording. This compression involved in the normalization process can reduce the dynamic range of a track, resulting in streaming playback that's different from how the artist and producer intended.

To turn off volume normalization on Spotify, navigate to Settings > Playback and flip off the toggle beside volume normalization. For YouTube Music users, find Settings > Playback & restrictions > Consistent volume and ensure it is disabled.

Tune Your EQ

Equalizers are a great way to tweak the sound profile of your favorite music streaming service. Depending on your platform, you might have a built-in EQ or integrate with a third-party one. EQ settings adjust the sound profiles to either balance or emphasize certain parts of the soundstage, such as bass, midrange, or treble.

If your music app doesn't have a great EQ, consider using a third-party app like Wavelet on Android or Boom on iOS. Spotify users can find their EQ by navigating to Settings > Playback > Equalizer. For YouTube Music, it's found under Settings > Equalizer.

Don't Use Dolby Atmos

Dolby Atmos and lossless audio are often used interchangeably, but they're very different. Dolby Atmos is a surround-sound music format that creates a spatial effect for listeners on supported devices, headphones, and speakers. Meanwhile, lossless audio is formatted in stereo with high bitrates and zero compression.

To ensure you're not sacrificing sound quality, open the Settings app and navigate to Music > Dolby Atmos to turn it off. You may need to delete and re-download your library to replace Dolby Atmos tracks with Lossless or Hi-Res Lossless versions.

Adjust Your Audio Quality Settings

The simplest way to ensure your music streaming sounds as good as it can be is to enable the highest-quality format you can access. This goes for both free and paid music streamers. Even on Spotify's free tier, the default audio quality setting is Automatic, but it can be bumped up to High.

By subscribing to Spotify Premium, users gain access to Lossless, which uses 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC files. On Apple Music, the max is Hi-Res Lossless with 24-bit/192 kHz ALAC files. Amazon Music's Ultra HD setting and Tidal's Max option reach 24-bit/192 kHz as well.

You can find the audio quality setting on Spotify by navigating to Settings > Media quality. For Tidal, find Settings > Audio & Playback. Apple Music users should open the Settings app and navigate to Music > Audio Quality. Note that music streaming services often have different settings for Wi-Fi streaming, cellular streaming, and downloads.

Other Ways to Get Better Audio Quality

After you've changed these settings, there are still a few ways you can get better sound out of your favorite music streaming service. Check whether your headphones or earbuds support a high-resolution wireless audio codec, such as AptX Adaptive or LDAC. These are relatively niche and require both the source device and your pair of headphones to support them.

However, if your gear does support these high-res Bluetooth codecs, you'll get better sound without having to plug in a DAC or wired headphones.