honestly. i dont know if you notice this but spotify audio encoding quality is better than youtube
even instagram has more dynamics in the sound.. anyone relate to this?

youtube is the worst!!! feels like sound loses dynamics and volume. why the hell did they make stable volume? also.. i would like to know what kind of bitrates and quality these platforms use.

 

Last edited: Jan 24, 2026 at 8:12 AM

Source and more: https://wiki.libre.moe/en/codecs/audio/compression-comparison-of-music-streaming-services

Ranking the non-lossless offers based on my personal (a bit subjective but well-informed) knowledge:

1. Spotify App (Premium)
2. Apple Music, Spotify Web (Premium), SoundCloud (HQ)
3. YouTub, Spotify App (Free)
4. Spotify Web (Free), YouTube Live
5. SoundCloud

Please note that all lossless offers will deliver better quality than any lossy offer, meaning Tidal and Apple Music Lossless (which is included in the regular subscription) are better than e.g. Spotify or YouTube.

 

Googling gave me this:
YouTube Music streams at a maximum quality of
256kbps AAC (or Opus) for Premium subscribers

 

why does youtube sound so bad

 

Because they're using different sources, i.e. masters, for many tracks. This and any pre-processing do matter. The codec doesn't really.

Metallica's "My Apocalypse" – YouTube (top, green) vs. Spotify (bottom, blue):

 

simply put: it is your job to create masters according to the specs the platform wants. if you stuff is to loud, the platform might destroy the sound.

 

Yes, resoundingly... Spotify and all others who only offer MP3 quality encoding are total crap and a waste of $$, IMO. I chucked spotty a long while back and went to Qobuz because most all stuff there is 96k/24b or at least 44k/16b audio if nothing else. You can record stuff off qb @ 96k/24b (or direct to 44k/16) and go directly to CD or FLAC with it. They aren't screwing with the audio like so many other platforms are doing. They do have an option switch to turn on "leveling" if one wanted it, but I never use it and the setting is defaulted to OFF. The only problem is that as far as dynamics go with more modern stuff, much of the dynamics are chucked out the window at the mastering stage anymore which IMO is complete b.s..

 

Last edited: Jan 25, 2026 at 12:02 AM

Codecs got so good by now, I'll be the first one here to admit that I can not really hear a difference reliable in a blind test above 128 AAC.

Even though I've been producing music and training attentive listening for many years. Maybe my ears got worse because of that, I hope not.

But honestly... I'm sure even the high fi Tidal people can't really hear a difference from Spotify (320 Vorbis) to Tidal (lossless). I sure couldn't, I won't lie. (The big joke is also that on these lossless platforms a lot of music exists in higher quality then the original recording so they just converted to and suddenly people brag about how the can totally hear the difference... yeah)

Except SoundCloud. That's shit of course. And with YouTube it depends, with so many people uploading music you get all kinds of mixed qualities.


Spotify is 320 and 256 Vorbis and AAC I believe. I'd be interested how many people can tell the difference against higher quality in a blind test.

 

Last edited: Jan 25, 2026 at 7:46 AM

songs from 16 years ago on youtube sound really bad.. low volume, almost mono, muddy and vague

 

YouTube Music started 10 years ago.
Are you talking about random videos that someone uploaded from who knows where?

 

Youtube ID content and Youtube Music are 2 different things.

 

qubus and tidal seem to boost @ 100hz which is a little unpleasant