From crossfade to lossless: 5 must-tweak Spotify settings most people miss
Spotify remains by far the largest music streaming service, with nearly 700 million users worldwide. However, most are probably unaware of the many tricks that can make the experience more enjoyable.
We present the most important tips and explain how to use them effectively.
Tip 1: Turn on the sleep timer
If you enjoy listening to podcasts or relaxing music to help you fall asleep, you may want to prevent Spotify from continuing to play once you’ve already fallen asleep. This is very easy to set up.
Simply tap the small clock icon at the bottom right while a song or episode is playing. A menu will appear, allowing you to set up the sleep timer to start after a certain amount of time (for example, one hour) or after the current episode ends.
Tip 2: Activate transitions between songs
With some songs, there may be an awkward silence when transitioning to the next track. This depends on whether the songs belong to an album or a randomly compiled playlist.
To prevent this, you can also set Spotify to play seamlessly without pauses or, alternatively, to play smoother transitions between songs. Both options can be found under Settings and Privacy > Song Transitions.
You can also choose how long these transitions should be. You can set up to 12 seconds, during which the first song overlaps with the next one. This can sometimes create a smoother transition, but it may not work well across different genres. Try it out and see what works best for you.
Tip 3: Unlock better audio quality
As of September 2025, Spotify has been offering “lossless audio,” which aims to reproduce songs faithfully and provide a significantly better sound experience. Surprisingly, this feature is not part of a more expensive “Super Premium” subscription, but is available to all Premium subscribers.
To activate this feature, go to Settings and Privacy. There, select Media Quality and then Lossless (at the bottom of the menu). Enabling this option may increase mobile data usage, as it is best suited for listening at home with a good sound system.
Tip 4: Give preference to rarely heard songs
If you often feel like you’re hearing the same songs over and over again in Spotify’s shuffle mode, you’re not imagining it. Basically, every song has the same chance of being selected in shuffle mode, but statistics from many users show that certain songs are sometimes preferred.
To prevent this, you can activate Smart Shuffle mode and the Less Repeats option in the Spotify settings under Playback. This ensures that songs are still selected at random, but that you don’t always hear the same ones.
Tip 5: Finally get suitable song suggestions
The last tip requires a few more steps, but it can ultimately ensure that Spotify provides better recommendations for unknown songs or artists. After all, many users feel that Spotify’s suggestions can be fairly inaccurate if you’re not into mainstream pop or current chart hits.
The first step is to check what Spotify suggests. To do this, go to the Search section and then to Music for You. There, you’ll find daily suggestions for new releases or songs that Spotify thinks are a good fit.
If there’s a song you like, add it to your playlist. If not, click on the three dots and then on Exclude from Taste Profile. You can do the same with Your Mix of the Week . This should give Spotify a better idea of your preferences.
Next, start creating your own playlists and follow other users’ public playlists. This feeds Spotify with even more information about what you like to listen to.
It also helps to remove unwanted songs instead of skipping them every time they appear in a playlist. Otherwise, Spotify will keep suggesting these songs.
If this still doesn’t help, you can use external tools for better recommendations. These include free services such as Playlost.fm or Chosic.