News

Spotify Premium Users Can Stream Lossless Music At Last

The feature supports up to 24-bit FLAC quality and is rolling out in over 50 countries. However, Middle East users may have to wait until October.

Published

12 months ago

September 11, 2025

Nour Nasir

Spotify

Spotify has switched on lossless music streaming after years of delays, bringing premium users up to 24-bit/44.1kHz FLAC quality across most of its 100-million-track library. First teased in 2021 as a “HiFi” tier, the feature is now rolling out in more than 50 countries — but unfortunately, the Middle East isn’t on the initial list.

Lossless audio delivers uncompressed sound, retaining full quality for playback on capable headphones and speakers. Premium subscribers in the US, UK, Germany, Japan, Australia and Sweden are among the first to get access. Users will see a notification when the option lands on their account, and it must be enabled manually under Settings > Media Quality > Lossless for both streaming and downloads.

The company has confirmed that regular Bluetooth can’t carry lossless audio, so playback requires Spotify Connect over Wi-Fi with compatible gear from brands like Bose, Yamaha and Bluesound. This keeps fidelity intact without relying on Bluetooth compression.

Also Read: Best Music Streaming Services In The Middle East

Spotify is late to a race rivals started years ago — Apple Music added lossless in 2021, while Amazon bundled its HD tier at no extra cost in 2020. For Middle Eastern subscribers, the wait continues: Spotify says October will bring clarity on whether the feature rolls out in the region.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

1 week ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.