Well the application doesn't require flash.

I'd better Flash than new SSD.

With Adobe Flash installed it's only a matter of time before a new plugin exploit allows your SSD to be reformatted/flashed.

Click to activate solves this problem fairly well.

Chrome and Edge have Flash built in. Problem solved.

A good reason would be if you have a Premium account and want to listen to something better than 128kbps MP3s.

I am also an audiophile but I would wager that most regular people could not tell the difference anyway.

I'd wager those self-proclaimed audiophiles can't either, or maybe just. My dad is one of those and it's all imagination. Give him a song he doesn't know yet and he can't tell whether you're playing the flac or 192k mp3 version. 128k seems audible if you're looking for it on good hardware.

Well a well mixed record does way more good than lossless vs. 192k, but I definitely hear it.

It depends a lot on the record, but on a gorillaz track ("feel good inc") I could hear it very well.

Ironically the tracks quality on spotify is quite bad, because the label provided crap to them.

edit: reply from the support was:

    ~320 kbps (only available to Premium subscribers) [...]

    Also, we only make the music available in whatever form it’s given to us by the artists or labels.

edit: good abx test for spotify standard quality: http://abx.digitalfeed.net/spotify.html

I now did the test and failed :) (the one vs 192kbs

I wonder though, if I would hear it for the kind of music I listen too (more technoid or classic). James Blake was the closest sample, but rather easy on the codec I guess.

Here (James Blake and alike) much producing goes in to making things sound "punchy", so you limit the frequency range of most things to keep a clear sound (e.g. a high cymbal will be stripped of possible lower frequencies) and you do tricks like cross-chaining: when the base drum hits you turn the volume of the rest of the track down. And than loads of compression, making silent parts louder.

> ~320 kbps (only available to Premium subscribers)

Yeah if it were up to me they should get rid of the free tier altogether. It's basically people living off the back of paid users, which I am one of, and not wanting to compensate artists. They might as well be using the pirate bay.

Well there is still advertisements. I once read facebook make 12$/Year/ActiveUser or something? Surprisingly much! (though if there was the option and I didn't have fb so much I'd happily pay that)

Flac is used for storing music and then encoding to a format that is more suitable for playback.