Spotify to offer CD-quality streaming

Chiefs at online music streaming application Spotify have announced that premium users of the service will be able to listen to CD-quality content from Friday (June 26).

Since launching in October 2008 the application has streamed content at 160kb/s. Premium users will be able to listen to music streamed at 320kb/s.

Users who are not premium members of Spotify will still be able to stream content at 160kb/s.

A statement from Spotify claimed that the quality was the highest of any digital music service, and Spotify founder Daniel Ek added that an unequalled bit rate has long been an aspiration for the application.

"Providing great sound quality has always been an important goal for us," he said. "Now, we're taking the next step in offering an unparalleled listening experience."

The news comes a day after the Official Charts Company in the UK announced that it expected free songs streamed on services such as Spotify to soon count towards the UK album and singles charts.