Seven streaming services' published audio specs in one matrix, with no rankings. The Apple Music bitrate answer is a format band, lossless up to 48 kHz and Hi-Res Lossless from 48 kHz to 192 kHz, with no kbps figure published. The Tidal bitrate record names three tiers: Low up to 320 kbps AAC, High FLAC at 16-bit/44.1 kHz, Max HiRes FLAC up to 24-bit/192 kHz. YouTube Music tops out at 256 kbps, Spotify's app ladder runs about 24 to 320 kbit/s plus a lossless tier, Deezer prints 64 to 1411 kb/s, Qobuz names MP3, CD and Hi-Res tiers, and Amazon names HD and Ultra HD without numbers. Every row names its official source and access date, and the Bluetooth side is a separate, device-level record.
Figures on this page were checked October 2026. Every row carries its source and access date, and every number is quoted from the service's own documentation.
Seven streaming services, one matrix, no verdicts. The Apple Music bitrate question has an official answer that is not a kbps number: lossless up to 48 kHz, Hi-Res Lossless from 48 kHz to 192 kHz. The Tidal bitrate record names three tiers and puts numbers on all of them. Everything else each service publishes about its own audio sits in the table below.
Sources and methodology
The rule for every cell: it comes from that service's help center, support site or product page, checked October 13, 2026, and the row says so. Where a service publishes several figures with different meanings, they get separate rows. Unit spellings (kbit/s, kb/s, kbps) are transcribed as each service prints them, and Qobuz's decimal comma is kept as printed.
| Service | Channel | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| Spotify | Help center article "Audio quality" | 2026-10-13 |
| Apple Music | Product page + support article 118295 | 2026-10-13 |
| Tidal | Two support articles + plans page | 2026-10-13 |
| YouTube Music | Help article "Change your audio quality" | 2026-10-13 |
| Amazon Music | Three help articles | 2026-10-13 |
| Qobuz | Audio quality page | 2026-10-13 |
| Deezer | Support article "Deezer Audio Quality" | 2026-10-13 |
Where a support domain gates plain fetches, values were read from the rendered page in a browser session on the same date.
Published quality tiers by service
One row per tier, one source per row, and tier names as the services print them. A service that publishes no numbers for a tier gets that fact as the row.
| Service | Tier | Published spec | Source / as of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spotify, web player | Free | AAC 128kbit/s | Audio quality help, 2026-10-13 |
| Spotify, web player | Premium | AAC 256kbit/s | Audio quality help, 2026-10-13 |
| Spotify, app | Free: Automatic, Low, Normal, High | Automatic follows the network; Low about 24kbit/s; Normal about 96kbit/s; High about 160kbit/s | Audio quality help, 2026-10-13 |
| Spotify, app | Premium: adds Very high and Lossless | Very high about 320kbit/s; Lossless "Equivalent up to 24-bit/44.1kHz FLAC" | Audio quality help, 2026-10-13 |
| Apple Music | Lossless | "lossless audio up to 48kHz" | Apple Music product page, 2026-10-13 |
| Apple Music | Hi-Res Lossless | "lossless audio from 48kHz to 192kHz"; footnote: "Lossless audio available up to 24-bit/192 kHz" | Apple Music product page, 2026-10-13 |
| Tidal | Low | up to 320 kbps, compressed AAC files | HiRes FLAC support article, 2026-10-13 |
| Tidal | High | lossless FLAC, 16-bit/44.1 kHz | HiRes FLAC support article, 2026-10-13 |
| Tidal | Max | HiRes FLAC, "lossless audio up to 24-bit, 192 kHz" | HiRes FLAC support article, 2026-10-13 |
| Tidal | Dolby Atmos | offered as a format with a settings toggle; no numeric spec | Support articles + plans page, 2026-10-13 |
| YouTube Music, streaming | Low | "Upper bound of 48kbps AAC & OPUS" | Help article 9076559, 2026-10-13 |
| YouTube Music, streaming | Normal (default) | "Upper bound of 128kbps AAC & OPUS" | Help article 9076559, 2026-10-13 |
| YouTube Music, streaming | High | "Upper bound of 256kbps AAC & OPUS" | Help article 9076559, 2026-10-13 |
| YouTube Music, streaming | Always High | "Bitrate: 256kbps AAC & OPUS" | Help article 9076559, 2026-10-13 |
| YouTube Music, downloads | Low / Normal / High | 48 / 128 / 256 kbps AAC & OPUS | Help article 9076559, 2026-10-13 |
| Amazon Music | HD | tier name only; current official pages print no numbers; included with Unlimited and Standard "for no extra charge" | HD/Ultra HD help article, 2026-10-13 |
| Amazon Music | Ultra HD | tier name only; "millions of songs in Ultra HD"; no numeric spec on current official pages | HD/Ultra HD help article, 2026-10-13 |
| Amazon Music | Spatial Audio | "A growing catalog of Spatial Audio mastered in Dolby Atmos and 360 Reality Audio" | HD/Ultra HD help article, 2026-10-13 |
| Qobuz | MP3 | "320Kbps" | Audio quality page, 2026-10-13 |
| Qobuz | CD Quality | "16-Bit / 44,1kHz" (decimal comma as printed) | Audio quality page, 2026-10-13 |
| Qobuz | Hi-Res Audio | "24-Bit / up to 192kHz" | Audio quality page, 2026-10-13 |
| Deezer, mobile | Basic | 64kb/s, mp3 | Audio quality support article, 2026-10-13 |
| Deezer, mobile | Standard | 128kb/s, mp3 | Audio quality support article, 2026-10-13 |
| Deezer, mobile | High quality | 320kb/s, mp3 | Audio quality support article, 2026-10-13 |
| Deezer, mobile | High Fidelity | 1411kb/s, FLAC | Audio quality support article, 2026-10-13 |
| Deezer, desktop | Standard | 128kb/s, mp3 | Audio quality support article, 2026-10-13 |
| Deezer, desktop | Better | 320kb/s, mp3 | Audio quality support article, 2026-10-13 |
| Deezer, desktop | High Fidelity | 1411kb/s, FLAC | Audio quality support article, 2026-10-13 |
Two patterns sit in the table without needing a verdict. Apple and Amazon describe their top tiers by format band or tier name, with no kbps figure on either official page; Amazon's help text carries relative multipliers ("more than double", "up to 10 times") as its own claims. The other five services print kbps figures in at least part of their ladders.
What each service publishes about Bluetooth
Bluetooth is where the services mostly go quiet, and the quiet is itself a finding. One service names a codec for its own hardware, one carries a glossary definition, and the other five publish audio-quality documentation with no Bluetooth codec line at all. Each absence below is scoped to the documents listed and was checked the same day as the numbers.
| Service | Bluetooth in the official audio docs | Source / as of |
|---|---|---|
| Apple | "AirPods 3 or earlier, AirPods Pro 1, AirPods Pro 2 with Lightning Charging Case, AirPods Max, and most Beats wireless headphones use Apple AAC Bluetooth Codec"; "Bluetooth connections aren't lossless" | Support article 118295, 2026-10-13 |
| Qobuz | Glossary: "Bluetooth uses various codecs which reduce the quality of transmitted files" | Audio quality page, 2026-10-13 |
| Spotify | No Bluetooth line in the audio quality article | Audio quality help, 2026-10-13 |
| YouTube Music | No Bluetooth line in the audio quality article | Help article 9076559, 2026-10-13 |
| Amazon Music | No Bluetooth line in the three help articles checked | Help pages, 2026-10-13 |
| Deezer | No Bluetooth line in the audio quality article | Audio quality support article, 2026-10-13 |
| Tidal | No Bluetooth codec line in the two audio-quality support articles or the plans page | Support articles + plans page, 2026-10-13 |
From the file to the link
Every number above describes a file a service delivers to a device. Bluetooth plays something else: a re-encode of that file, produced by the codec your devices negotiate. The service does not pick that codec, so a lossless tier does not travel losslessly over the air by default. The floor is set by the A2DP standard, which makes SBC mandatory on both ends of every link.
What each codec actually carries has its own record: the bitrate bench compiles published payloads from SBC's 127 kb/s ladder to LDAC's 990 kbps. Device-side codec menus live in the Android record and the iPhone LDAC record. The Tidal LDAC page walks one full example of the three layers: service, encoder, link.
Coverage and gaps
| Gap | Status | Source / as of |
|---|---|---|
| Apple kbps figure | No kbps number on either official page; lossless is defined by sample-rate band and bit depth | Both Apple pages, 2026-10-13 |
| Amazon numeric specs | Current official help articles name tiers without numbers; the relative multipliers are Amazon's own claims | Three help articles, 2026-10-13 |
| Deezer 128 or 129 | The article's step text says "Standard (129 kbps)" while its own table prints 128kb/s; the table values are used here | Audio quality support article, 2026-10-13 |
| Tidal marketing page | tidal.com/hires-flac returned "Page not found" at the 2026-10-13 check; the figures live in the support article | Checked 2026-10-13 |
| Observed layer | Official documents only; no third-party measurement rows are compiled on this page | Compilation scope, 2026-10-13 |
For the payload side of the links these files end up on, the bitrate bench keeps the per-codec record.
FAQ
No kbps figure appears on either official page. Apple defines the tiers by format: Lossless is lossless audio up to 48 kHz, Hi-Res Lossless runs from 48 kHz to 192 kHz, and the product page footnotes "Lossless audio available up to 24-bit/192 kHz." For Bluetooth, the support article documents the Apple AAC Bluetooth Codec for listed AirPods and Beats models and adds that Bluetooth connections are not lossless.
Tidal's support docs name three selectable tiers: Low, High and Max. Low runs up to 320 kbps as compressed AAC, High is lossless FLAC at 16-bit/44.1 kHz, and Max is HiRes FLAC, lossless up to 24-bit/192 kHz. The quality pill in the player shows FLAC, High, or Low for the track you are playing.
Four streaming settings, documented as upper bounds in AAC & OPUS: Low 48 kbps, Normal 128 kbps, High 256 kbps, and Always High fixed at 256 kbps. Downloads carry the same 48/128/256 ladder. YouTube Music Premium members can select the bitrate, and the help page says the setting defaults to Normal for your location.
This page does not rank services. Every figure belongs to the service that published it, and a published figure describes file delivery, not listening results. The layer this site documents separately is the Bluetooth link itself, which your devices negotiate; its records sit on the codec and device pages.
blafili B3 Bluetooth Receiver
XLR, RCA, optical and coax outputs with an OLED front panel, built on the QCC5125 + ES9018K2M platform. A wired amp or receiver, put on a wireless source.
- Spotify Support, "Audio quality": web player AAC 128kbit/s (Free) and AAC 256kbit/s (Premium); app tiers Automatic (network-dependent), Low approximately 24kbit/s, Normal approximately 96kbit/s, High approximately 160kbit/s (Free), plus Very high approximately 320kbit/s and "Lossless: Equivalent up to 24-bit/44.1kHz FLAC" (Premium); podcast quality approximately 96kbit/s, 128kbit/s on the web player. support.spotify.com/us/article/audio-quality/, accessed 2026-10-13
- Apple, Apple Music product page: "In Apple Music, "Lossless" refers to lossless audio up to 48kHz, and "Hi-Res Lossless" refers to lossless audio from 48kHz to 192kHz."; footnote "Lossless audio available up to 24-bit/192 kHz."; "Lossless and Hi-Res Lossless files are very large and use much more bandwidth and storage space than standard AAC files." apple.com/apple-music/, accessed 2026-10-13
- Apple Support, "About lossless audio in Apple Music" (restructured since the 2026-09-22 capture; the tier definition table is no longer on this page): "AirPods 3 or earlier, AirPods Pro 1, AirPods Pro 2 with Lightning Charging Case, AirPods Max, and most Beats wireless headphones use Apple AAC Bluetooth Codec to ensure excellent audio quality." and "However, Bluetooth connections aren't lossless." No kbps figure appears anywhere on the page. support.apple.com/en-us/118295, accessed 2026-10-13
- TIDAL Support, "HiRes FLAC audio" (Updated 9 months ago at access): "Max: High fidelity lossless audio up to 24-bit, 192 kHz with HiRes FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), an open-source format that every artist can create and deliver their music in."; "High: Lossless audio with FLAC (16-bit, 44.1 kHz)"; "Low (up to 320 kbps): Listen to the music you love using lower data usage with compressed AAC files."; the player pill shows "either FLAC, High, or Low". support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/17412130162961-HiRes-FLAC-audio, accessed 2026-10-13
- TIDAL Support, "Change sound quality level": streaming quality on mobile data, WiFi and downloads, and on desktop and web, selectable as Low, High, or Max. support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003650917-Change-sound-quality-level, accessed 2026-10-13
- TIDAL plans page: "Millions of tracks in lossless, HiRes FLAC, and Dolby Atmos" (Individual and Family plans). tidal.com/plans, accessed 2026-10-13. The marketing page tidal.com/hires-flac, captured 2026-09-24 via Wayback, returned "Page not found" at the 2026-10-13 check.
- Google, YouTube Music Help, "Change your audio quality": "YouTube Music Premium members can select the bitrate at which music is streamed and downloaded."; streaming on WiFi and on mobile network: Low "Upper bound of 48kbps AAC & OPUS", Normal (default) "Upper bound of 128kbps AAC & OPUS", High "Upper bound of 256kbps AAC & OPUS", Always High "Bitrate: 256kbps AAC & OPUS"; download quality 48, 128 or 256 kbps AAC & OPUS. support.google.com/youtubemusic/answer/9076559, accessed 2026-10-13
- Amazon Customer Service, "What is High Definition (HD) and Ultra High Definition (Ultra HD) Audio?": HD and Ultra HD included with Amazon Music Unlimited or Standard "for no extra charge"; "Amazon Music Unlimited Single Device Plan doesn't have access to HD, Ultra HD, and Spatial Audio"; "HD audio quality is more than double the quality of standard quality streaming services."; "Ultra HD audio quality is up to 10 times the quality of standard quality streaming services."; "A growing catalog of Spatial Audio mastered in Dolby Atmos and 360 Reality Audio is also available." No numeric bitrate, bit depth or sample rate appears on the page. amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G8X4YJYLED87FSH2, accessed 2026-10-13
- Amazon Customer Service, "What Do All These Audio Quality Terms Mean?": "Although FLAC encoding format is lossless, it still compresses the audio file. Some music compresses better than others, so you may observe some HD or Ultra HD music displaying a bitrate as below 1000kbps, even though no audio is lost." amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G9VHVWFUMCUHA63T, accessed 2026-10-13
- Amazon Customer Service, "About Amazon Music Standard": "100 million songs in HD, millions of songs in Ultra HD, a growing catalog of music mastered in Dolby Atmos and 360 Reality Audio". amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=TDZYiIpbl6ZeRtgWpN, accessed 2026-10-13
- Qobuz, "Understanding music in high sound quality": quality selector "MP3 320Kbps", "CD Quality (16-Bit / 44,1kHz)", "Hi-Res Audio (24-Bit / up to 192kHz)" (decimal comma as printed); glossary "Bluetooth is a wireless communication exchange standard between two devices. To read audio files, Bluetooth uses various codecs which reduce the quality of transmitted files."; smartphone line "most platforms prefer to opt for the MP3 format at a speed between 96 and 160 Kb/s". qobuz.com/us-en/audio-quality, accessed 2026-10-13
- Deezer Support, "Deezer Audio Quality" (shows "2 months ago Updated" at access): mobile table Basic 64kb/s mp3, Standard 128kb/s mp3, High quality 320kb/s mp3, High Fidelity 1411kb/s FLAC; desktop table Standard 128kb/s mp3, Better 320kb/s mp3, High Fidelity 1411kb/s FLAC; the article's step text also says "Standard (129 kbps)" while its table prints 128kb/s. support.deezer.com/hc/en-gb/articles/115003865685-Deezer-Audio-Quality, accessed 2026-10-13
- Bluetooth SIG, A2DP 1.3.2 Section 4.2.1: SBC mandatory in sources and sinks, the floor every A2DP link carries. bluetooth.com/specifications/specs/advanced-audio-distribution-profile-1-3-2/, accessed 2026-10-13 (first verified for this site's Tidal LDAC record, 2026-09-24)
- This site's codec payload record, /codecs/bench-bitrate: published Bluetooth codec rates from SBC's 127 kb/s ladder to LDAC's 990 kbps, observed rows labeled by rig. Cross-checked 2026-10-13.
- This site's Tidal LDAC record, /compatibility/tidal-ldac: the service delivers files, the device stack encodes them, and the link is negotiated between two devices. Cross-checked 2026-10-13.