How-To

How to Make Spotify Louder

By Brian Burgess

Published February 14, 2022

After turning up the volume, you might find that Spotify isn’t loud enough for your music or playlists. Here’s how to make Spotify louder and sound better.

Spotify has millions of songs and thousands of podcasts for you to listen to. You might spend a reasonable amount of time creating playlists and subscribing to your favorite shows, but there’s a problem—something doesn’t sound quite right.

While you’re listening to your favorite content on Spotify, you might want the adjust the audio to make it louder and sound better. You increase the volume on your device or volume slider on the app, but it might not be enough.

Luckily, there are other ways to make Spotify louder and sound better all the time—here’s how.

How to Make Spotify Louder

One of the ways to adjust audio from Spotify is by setting the volume level.

To adjust the volume level in Spotify, use these steps:

1. On the desktop app, launch Spotify and click the three-dot menu in the upper-left corner.
2. From there, select Edit > Preferences.
3. Under the Audio quality section, select the dropdown menu next to Volume level and set it to the Loud option. Note that this can diminish audio quality, but the volume will be louder.
4. On your mobile device, launch the Spotify app and tap the gear icon on the top-right corner to open Settings.
5. On the following screen, tap Playback from the list.
6. Scroll down to the Volume level section and set it to the Loud option.

The Loud option will increase the volume, but one song might blare out louder than the last, which is annoying. So make sure to turn on the Normalize volume option above Volume level.

How to Improve Audio Quality on Spotify

In addition to making Spotify louder, you can improve the audio quality too. While that doesn’t technically increase the decibel level, it improves the overall music streaming experience. Adjusting the audio can “trick” your ears into thinking it’s louder. You can adjust different frequencies and optimize the audio using some built-in settings.

Spotify offers different audio quality levels like Low (24kbps), Normal (96kbps), High (160kbps), and Very High (320kpbs). The higher the kbps, the more pristine and clean the audio stream.

Note: To get the Very High streaming level, you need to be a Spotify Premium user. Also, at the time of this writing, Spotify hasn’t rolled out its Hi-Fi lossless audio plan. If you want lossless CD-quality music, Apple Music offers it, and so does TIDAL.

To improve the audio quality on Spotify, use the following steps:

1. Open Spotify, click the three-dot menu, and select Edit > Preferences from the menus.
2. Scroll down to the Audio quality section and set Streaming quality to High or Very high for best results.
3. On your mobile device, launch the Spotify app and open Settings (gear icon).
4. Click the Audio Quality option on the next screen.
5. Now, select the streaming audio quality you want. It allows you to adjust the quality while connected to Wi-Fi and over Cellular.

The higher you set it, the more data it will use. That’s typically not an issue for at-home use. However, you’ll want to use discretion while on cellular if you have a limited data plan.

How to Adjust the Built-in Spotify Equalizer

Everyone hears things differently, and you might want to adjust the sound of the audio you’re listening to. To boost audio frequencies and make your music sound better, you can use Spotify’s equalizer.

To adjust the equalizer settings in Spotify, use these steps:

1. Launch Spotify on your phone or tablet and open Settings (gear icon), and select Playback.

2. On the Playback settings screen, scroll down and tap Equalizer.

3. Now you can adjust the audio frequencies using the equalizer. You can choose from several presets like Rock, Pop, Bass booster, and others. It also allows you to manually adjust frequencies by sliding them individually for the perfect sound.

It’s important to note that the desktop version of Spotify doesn’t include an equalizer. However, there are different third-party software options available.

Enable Hardware Acceleration in Spotify

If you have a high-quality soundcard, GPU, and other beefy hardware you’ll want to get the most from it. For that, you can enable hardware acceleration on Spotify.

To enable hardware acceleration, use the following steps:

1. Open the Spotify app on your desktop and click the three-dot menu and go to Edit > Preferences.

2. Scroll down and click Show Advanced Settings > Compatibility and turn on the Enable hardware acceleration switch.

With hardware acceleration enabled, Spotify should optimize the volume and other experiences of the app. However, it will vary between devices and types of hardware—it can always cause Spotify to stop randomly.

Enjoying Your Spotify Playlists

Using the steps above will provide an audio experience that’s louder and better sounding. You can only adjust the audio quality to 160kbps with a free account. You’ll need the Premium version to get the higher streaming rates.

Spotify offers several features for making listening to your music an enjoyable experience. For example, you can change a Spotify playlist picture or transfer your playlists to a new account. Another underused feature is playing your own music files on Spotify, which is helpful if you’re offline or an artist isn’t on Spotify.