Youtube Audio quality vs Spotify or other services

[JaZoN_XD]

Just wondering what the audio quality difference is between a Youtube song (Vevo for example) vs the song that you could find on Spotify or other services where you can buy/download the full song album? Thanks.

[Blueprint]

Youtube is up to 192 Kbps at HD, whereas Spotify premium is up to 320 Kbps.

 

Of course it depends on the original file bitrate as well but that'll most likely be 320 at least. 

[EndlessOyster]

While tidal is loss less but still shit.

[Pomfinator]

It's worse, because Youtube audio usually goes through 2-3 transcodes.  While at least in the case of iTunes and Google Play, they get studio masters that they encode down to AAC/MP3 themselves.

[JaZoN_XD]

1 minute ago, Pomfinator said:

It's worse, because Youtube audio usually goes through 2-3 transcodes.  While at least in the case of iTunes and Google Play, they get studio masters that they encode down to AAC/MP3 themselves.

So where can I get the highest quality soundtrack? I want to see if i can even hear/tell the difference

 

[Pomfinator]

Just now, JaZoN_XD said:

So where can I get the highest quality soundtrack? I want to see if i can even hear/tell the difference

 

The only way to guarantee, guarantee you're getting a completely lossless rip is to buy a CD and rip it yourself, or buying songs through avenues that offer lossless like Bandcamp.

 

Obviously theres the elephant in the room that starts with a 'p', but lets not touch on that.

[EndlessOyster]

9 hours ago, JaZoN_XD said:

So where can I get the highest quality soundtrack? I want to see if i can even hear/tell the difference

 

the expensive tidal subscription is lossless.

[TheAudiophile]

Spotify, even non-premium, tends to sound better than Youtube.

[shakenbreak]

3 hours ago, EndlessOyster said:

the expensive tidal subscription is lossless.

The free month is super nice though, don't think I can justify the $20/month price after that.

[shakenbreak]

13 hours ago, Pomfinator said:

The only way to guarantee, guarantee you're getting a completely lossless rip is to buy a CD and rip it yourself, or buying songs through avenues that offer lossless like Bandcamp.

 

Obviously theres the elephant in the room that starts with a 'p', but lets not touch on that.

The music I got from that service is 64kbps, so obviously the best high quality stuff there is out there.

[JaZoN_XD]

On 3/18/2016 at 0:34 PM, shakenbreak said:

The music I got from that service is 64kbps, so obviously the best high quality stuff there is out there.

wait 64? isn't youtube like 192...?

[Pomfinator]

31 minutes ago, JaZoN_XD said:

wait 64? isn't youtube like 192...?

He's talking about Pandora, the other service that starts with a p :P.

 

Pandora uses HE-AAC at 64kbps.

[BoredErica]

Best way to test is to have the files on your computer and run some sort of abx test.

[Majestic]

On 18-3-2016 at 3:54 AM, Pomfinator said:

The only way to guarantee, guarantee you're getting a completely lossless rip is to buy a CD and rip it yourself, or buying songs through avenues that offer lossless like Bandcamp.

 

Obviously theres the elephant in the room that starts with a 'p', but lets not touch on that.

I thought the elephant in the room started with an "L".