How to get the best audio quality on YouTube Music

Besides discovering the hidden features of YouTube Premium, one of the valuable benefits of this paid tier is the inclusion of a premium YouTube Music subscription. However, you’re probably missing a setting that could improve your listening experience. By default, YouTube Music sets your audio quality to “Normal”, which keeps its data consumption balanced and plays music at decent, but not high, quality. If you want to get the best audio quality here, you can switch to a “High” or “Always High” setting. Both of these settings will use more data to provide a better listening experience, but they won’t bring the platform’s audio quality up to par with lossless audio, which is a feature available on platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, and Tidal.

The “High” or “Always High” setting works best when you’re at home or anywhere there’s a stable Wi-Fi or data connection. Unless you download your playlists in advance, this isn’t a preferred setting when you’re on the go. If your signal is weak, the high audio quality setting may cause skipping or buffering in an attempt to provide better sound quality. On the other hand, the differences in sound definition are notable compared to the “Normal” setting. In the “Always High” streaming setting, songs sound clearer, crisper, and noticeably more open, with more distinctive vocals and instruments. If you’re an avid music listener, high settings are worth using, but be sure to prepare for offline downloads in case your signal or connectivity becomes shaky.

In YouTube Music, the default “Normal” setting only streams music up to 128 Kbps, while the highest settings are 256 Kbps. To listen to your songs at the highest bitrate, you will need to adjust a few settings in the streaming and download settings. Here’s how to enable the highest audio quality on YouTube Music:

1. Tap your profile picture in the upper right corner of the app.

2. Select “Settings”.

3. To adjust the quality of your streaming, if you are an Android user, select “Data backup”. For iOS users, select “Reading & Restrictions”.

4. Switch “Audio quality over mobile network” and “Audio quality over WiFi” to “High” or “Always high”. This setting will be immediately applied to your next streamed song.

5. To adjust the sound quality of your downloaded music, return to the Settings menu and select “Downloads & Storage”.

6. Set the audio quality to “High”.

7. Return to your music library and re-download your songs or playlists to apply this setting.

YouTube Music hasn’t announced plans to add lossless audio, so unless the difference between high-resolution audio and lossless audio doesn’t matter much to you, it might be best to consider other forms of playback. Beyond that, you can always enhance your listening experience through your equipment, whether you use headphones, earbuds, or speakers. Some brands of these products include in-app equalizers with presets or the ability to manually configure the best sound setting that suits you, or you can use a free tool that can update your headphones.