If you’re new to Spotify, you might notice something weird: Music might just sound a bit more quiet than it should. Maybe it’s a problem every now and then, or maybe it’s an issue for most songs. Either way, it’s annoying. Spotify should sound loud enough, especially when you feel you’ve turned up the volume as much as you can.
As with many tech problems, there are a few things that could be wrong here. While all streaming services have their pros and cons , Spotify isn’t necessarily known as the “quiet one.” If you’re struggling with the volume of your Spotify playback, one of the following adjustments might be the fix.
These steps make some assumptions, namely that the only volume issue rests with Spotify. If all audio playback on your device is too quiet, you might be dealing with another type of issue entirely, such as debris in your audio source, a blown speaker, or a general Bluetooth issue.
Volume normalization
Volume normalization, sometimes called “audio normalization ,” is a Spotify setting meant to help when listening to playlists with songs of various volumes. In theory, if you have one song that’s soft followed by one that’s loud, this setting would balance the volume of both, to make the overall volume around the same.
In practice, however, this can make songs that are normally one volume lower than they should be. If you find that some, but not all, of your songs are playing quieter than they should, this could be the culprit. In fact, I’d wager this setting is behind most Spotify users’ issues with audio playback.
To see, you can disable the setting by tapping your profile picture, then heading to Settings and privacy > Playback > Enable Audio Normalization. You can toggle this setting off completely, but if you do keep it on, there are also three distinct settings that might be affecting your playback:
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Loud: This option is meant for when using Spotify in loud rooms or areas. As such, you might not notice as much dampening, but it might be worth trying to see if it can boost the volume of quieter songs.
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Normal: The default option. This probably reduces volume in a noticeable way.
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Quiet: This option is meant for quiet rooms and areas. It likely has the biggest impact on volume levels.
Adjust ‘Heaphone Accommodations’ (Apple only)
If your issues are while using Spotify with an Apple device like a Mac or iPhone, especially while using headphones, “Headphone Accommodations” could be to blame. This setting lets you customize the audio experience for both Apple and Beats headphones, but if your settings aren’t quite right, you could be limiting the volume of your music.
To check, head to Settings > Accessibility > Audio & Visual > Headphone Accommodations (iOS) or System Settings > Accessibility > Audio > Headphone Accommodations (macOS). If the setting is enabled, you can try disabling it to see if that helps boost the volume of your playback. Alternatively, you can use the slider to boost soft sounds to “Moderate” or “Strong” levels.
Check your audio levels
It might sound obvious, but if your audio levels aren’t high enough, your music playback is going to be quieter than you’d like.
If you’re using the Spotify mobile app, this might not apply, but when using Spotify on your computer, this is absolutely a consideration. That’s because you’re not only dealing with the audio levels of your computer, you’re also dealing with the app-specific audio levels.
Check the volume bar in the bottom right corner of the app: Make sure it’s set to 100% if you find your volume to be too low. If you’re using connected speakers with their own independent volume settings too, make sure to boost those as well.
