Spotify's Windows 11 app gets a new quality feature FIRST, and high-end audio fans are going to love it

Windows users (and those of us from the Windows Phone era) are used to big platforms giving us features after everyone else, but that's not the case with Spotify's latest.

The newest feature, Exclusive Mode, is currently only available on the Windows desktop version of Spotify, though the company has confirmed it will eventually make its way to Mac.

So, what is Exclusive Mode? The short version is that it's Spotify's new quality feature, allowing us to hear "Bit Perfect" music playback, especially paired with the lossless setting.

It works by allowing Spotify to take complete and total control of your PCs audio processing, bypassing any alterations that other Windows apps and services might make to your output. From the Spotify announcement post:

"Without Exclusive Mode turned on, your computer may alter audio before it reaches your DAC by resampling it, mixing other system sounds in, and changing the volume. When Exclusive Mode is turned on in the Audio Output settings, Spotify takes full control of your computer's audio processing to deliver music exactly as it was mastered with Bit Perfect playback. This is ideal for listeners with a DAC or audio interface who want the purest possible sound without resampling and interference from their computer's audio mixer. "

Exclusive Mode can be enabled in Settings inside the latest version of the Spotify app on Windows 11 (1.2.84 or higher). To get it to show, you'll need to change the Device under Output to something other than system default.

Choose the device you want to use Exclusive Mode with, such as a DAC or audio interface, and you're good to go. You won't be able to use any other apps for audio through this device while you have Spotify running with Exclusive Mode turned on. It only works with music, too, not videos, podcasts, or audiobooks.

If you try, you'll just see an error. YouTube, for example, wouldn't play a video at all, throwing a problem with the audio rendering, and the Windows 11 videos app does something similar.

Is Exclusive Mode Spotify's new killer feature on Windows?

This is obviously a very targeted, niche feature for those who simply want to hear the absolute best quality music from Spotify on their PC.

I don't have that kind of hardware (right now) so I won't get the best from it, but if you do, let us know how you're finding it.

For more on Exclusive Mode check out Spotify's support document.

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