Spotify releases Windows Exclusive Mode and major Wear OS upgrades

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In a matter of days, Spotify has released two major upgrades for Windows and Wear OS. The former unlocks the company’s “Exclusive Mode”, allowing Spotify to control your PC’s audio processing to deliver music as it was mastered. The latter brings new visual elements and tap gestures to compatible Wear OS devices.

Spotify Exclusive Mode

After much anticipation among audiophiles, Spotify has finally launched its Exclusive Mode feature in the Windows desktop app. This reportedly delivers bit-perfect audio playback up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC by allowing Spotify to take control of your computer’s audio processing. The goal is to reproduce tracks as they were mastered. The feature is available to Premium subscribers, with support expected for macOS in the future.

A Spotify representative announced Exclusive Mode on the platform’s community site: “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.” The representative claims that Exclusive Mode 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.”

Enabling Exclusive Mode automatically disables Automix and Crossfade.

However, the feature isn’t without caveats. Firstly, enabling Exclusive Mode automatically disables Automix and Crossfade. It’s also unavailable while streaming in-app music videos, podcasts, preview clips, and canvas clips. Doing so will force Spotify to play from your computer’s default audio device.

Also, when Exclusive Mode is enabled, other apps on your PC will be unable to play audio through your device. The only way to get around this is with multiple audio devices, such as headphones or a USB DAC. With these, you can play sound from other apps by switching your computer’s default audio output to another device. Spotify recommends using Exclusive Mode with a DAC or audio interface to receive bit-perfect sound. The streaming service also suggests disabling Automix, Crossfade, Normalize Volume, and Equalizer features to hear music as it was originally mastered.

Visual elements and tap gestures with Wear OS

In addition to rolling out Exclusive Mode on Windows, Spotify has also introduced major upgrades to Wear OS. Revealed in a letter to TechRadar, Spotify’s Wear OS app now front-loads visual graphics on the ‘Now Playing’ screen. This displays creator art behind the current playing song and playback controls. You can also view and amend your music queue from this screen and control the audio output.

Swiping from top to bottom takes you to a new ‘immersive view’, displaying creator art in its entirety without the obstruction of the pause and play icons. Similarly, swiping up on the ‘Now Playing’ screen takes you to Spotify’s main Home page, where your Liked Songs, Downloads, recently-viewed playlists, podcasts, artists, and more are displayed. There’s also a new search function for browsing and adding songs to your queue.

Tap gestures make it easier to control your music directly from your wrist.

Cosmetics aside, you can also now manually use your finger to pause, play, and skip songs directly from your watch. This is in addition to tap gestures for controlling playback: one tap pauses and plays music, while two taps skip to the next song. This new control system makes it significantly easier to navigate music directly from your watch rather than your smartphone.

Unfortunately, Spotify on Apple Watch does not receive the company’s new album art feature. Indeed, the ‘Now Playing’ page on Apple Watch displays only the song title and artist, with the pause, play, skip, and queue icons set against a black background. Many users will be hoping for a major upgrade in the future.