Spotify recently finally updated its streaming service so that everyone with a Premium subscription can finally listen to music in the best possible quality thanks to lossless audio playback. This upgrade finally matched Apple Music, and brought much better quality music streams to Spotify users.

The streaming giant has now gone one better, offering another audio upgrade at no additional cost – but you’ll only be able to take advantage if you listen to Spotify using the official Windows 11 app.

Spotify announced via its community pages that it has launched ‘Exclusive Mode’ for the Spotify Windows desktop app, and it’s available now at no extra cost to all Premium subscribers. The app can be installed from the Microsoft Store or via Spotify’s website.

Spotify refers to Exclusive Mode as enabling “Bit Perfect playback”. It works by giving the Spotify app control over your PC’s audio processing, which in turn allows the app to play music mastered just as the artist intended.

Paired with lossless quality audio enabled, it should result in noticeably better streaming quality at up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC.

“Without Exclusive Mode turned on, your computer may alter audio before it reaches your DAC by resampling it, mixing other system sounds in, and changing the volume,” Spotify explained.

“When Exclusive Mode is turned on in the Audio Output settings, Spotify takes full control of your computer’s audio processing to deliver music exactly as it was mastered with Bit Perfect playback. This is ideal for listeners with a DAC or audio interface who want the purest possible sound without resampling and interference from their computer’s audio mixer.”

As this notes, you may not be able to take full advantage unless you have a DAC – that’s digital analogue converter – interface, which is a standalone piece of audio equipment. I tested the new Exclusive Mode played through headphones, and the audio was distorted, suggesting you really do need a specialist DAC for this new feature to work properly.

“Exclusive Mode works best with a DAC or audio interface. If your computer has a built-in headphone or speaker port, you might already have a compatible built-in DAC, so try selecting that,” Spotify said. “The Output dropdown menu may show devices that are not compatible with Exclusive Mode. If you experience an issue or get a popup message that content is unplayable, you can go into settings and switch the Output back to System Default.”

Desktop DACs are available for consumers from audio brands such as FiiO.

Spotify notes that you will also need to disable Crossfade, Automix, normalise volume and equaliser in order for Exclusive Mode to function correctly.

The fact there are so many caveats and hoops to jump through shows just how difficult it seemingly is for a global streaming provider to offer high quality audio playback, as quality is very dependent on the source device and the output device – so if your PC and headphones don’t cut it, you’re out of luck.