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Spotify’s latest feature, called Exclusive Mode, is now available, giving listeners who care deeply about audio quality a way to get bit-perfect playback of the songs they’re listening to.
The feature launches exclusively on Windows PCs first, before coming to Mac at a later, undisclosed date. Exclusive Mode allows Spotify to take control of your computer’s audio processing tools to ensure you can listen to songs as they were first mastered.
The announcement from Spotify says, “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.”
If you turn on Exclusive Mode, Spotify takes over your audio output settings across your device to "deliver music exactly as it was mastered with Bit Perfect playback." Spotify says it's the right choice for listeners who use a DAC or audio interface and want the "purest possible sound."
You won’t find this mode works for Spotify’s other media outside of music, including music videos or podcasts. Spotify doesn't mention whether it applies to audiobooks, but it's unlikely they'd be included.
To try out Exclusive Mode yourself, update Spotify, then go to Settings > Playback > Output and select your external audio device. Here you’ll see an option called Exclusive Mode that you'll need to toggle on.
When turned on, other services won't be able to play sound through the selected device. It may not be suitable for all setups, but you may find this helpful when listening to music with no other tasks running on your PC.
Spotify also recommends turning off other features within its own settings to get the best possible playback. That includes turning off Automix, Crossfade, Equalizer, and Normalize Volume. You'll find all of these under Settings > Playback.
Spotify confirms it plans to bring the feature to its Mac version at a later date, but so far it's just saying it’ll be in a “future release” rather than sharing a clear timeline.