Technologies
Change These Spotify Settings to Amp Up Your Music
Here’s how you can make listening to your favorite playlist even better.

With more than 205 million subscribers, Spotify is arguably one of the most popular music streaming platforms in the world. CNET also ranks Spotify as one of the best music streaming services on the market, and gave it an Editor’s Choice Award.


Spotify lets you listen to music wherever you are, recommends new songs based on your activity and provides fun, personalized streaming data at the end of every year. You can also make and share playlists with friends on social media, or with the whole world through the app.
If you feel like something is missing from your listening experience, though, Spotify lets you take control of various settings to make your music sound more superb. That way whether you’re in a quiet library, on your morning commute or pumping some iron in the gym, your music will always fit the mood.
Here’s how to crank your Spotify listening experience up to 11 no matter what the situation.
Adjust your base volume to match your environment
Volume is pretty easy to figure out, but did you know Spotify lets premium users adjust the base volume of the app depending on their environment? You can select either Quiet, Normal or Loud, and each has its own benefit.
Quiet will make songs a little quieter and sound cleaner, making it a good choice if you’re relaxing at home. Normal makes songs play at a medium base volume, and the sound is less crisp than Quiet. This is a good choice for most people and situations. Loud is — you guessed it — louder, but you might lose some audio quality because of the loudness. This option is good if you’re at the gym or other similarly noisy environments.


Changing your Spotify settings takes no time and can improve your whole listening experience.
Getty ImagesHere’s how to adjust the base volume on your iPhone:
1. Open the Spotify app.
2. Tap the gear icon in the top-right corner of your screen.
3. Tap Playback.
4. Under Volume level there are three options: Loud, Normal and Quiet.
If you’re using the Spotify app on a Mac, here’s how to adjust the base volume:
1. Open Spotify.
2. Click the down arrow in the top-right corner.
3. Under Audio Quality, you should see Volume level.
4. Click the drop-down bar to the right of Volume level.
5. From here, you see the same Loud, Normal and Quiet options. Pick whichever one works for you.
Here’s how to adjust the base volume if you’re using the Spotify app on an Android device:
1. Open Spotify.
2. Tap the gear icon to access Settings.
3. Under Playback you should see Volume Level.
4. Next to Volume Level you should see the Loud, Normal and Quiet options. Pick the one you want.
Finally, here’s how to adjust the base volume in Spotify while on a Windows computer:
1. Open Spotify.
2. Click your account name in the top-right corner.
3. Click Settings.
4. Under Audio Quality, you should see Volume level. Click the drop-down bar to the right.
5. Select either Loud, Normal or Quiet.
Use the Spotify Equalizer for more control
If you prefer being more hands-on with how your bass and treble come across in each song, you can adjust the in-app equalizer. Adjusting your bass affects lower-frequency sounds, making your music sound deeper with increased bass or flat with less bass. Treble affects the higher sound frequencies, making your music sound brighter and crisper with increased treble, or duller and kind of muddied with less treble.
Here’s how to access the equalizer on your iPhone:
1. Open Spotify.
2. Tap the gear in the top right corner to access Settings.
3. Tap Playback.
4. Scroll down and tap Equalizer.
Here’s how to access the equalizer on your Android device:
1. Open Spotify.
2. Tap the gear icon to access Settings.
3. Under Audio quality, tap Equalizer.
This opens the equalizer page on both systems. Here you can find the manual equalizer slider and a handful of premade genre-based equalizers.
You should see the manual equalizer slider that looks like a line graph with six dots. When you first get to this page, the equalizer should be flat.
Each dot on the graph can be adjusted for more or less sound. The far left bar represents your bass, the far right bar controls your treble and the middle bars control — you guessed it — your midrange. You can tweak the bars as you see fit.
There are also genre-based equalizers on this page. You can pick which genre you’re listening to and the app automatically adjusts the sliders to optimize for that style of music. After picking one, you can further adjust the sliders for the perfect listening experience.
If you want to reset the equalizer, there’s a genre-based equalizer called Flat. This will reset the equalizer to its default.
The Mac and Windows versions of Spotify don’t have an in-application equalizer. But you can search for an equalizer application to help you in your journey to find the best sound.


Adjusting these settings can really make your music pop
James Martin/CNETAdjust the quality of your music for a clearer sound
You can also adjust the audio quality of your music. This is handy if you’re using mobile data and don’t want to bump up your phone bill. Reducing the audio quality will use less data.
Here’s how to change the audio quality on mobile and tablet:
1. Open the Spotify app.
2. Tap the gear icon to access Settings.
3. Tap Audio Quality.
4. Under WiFi streaming and Cellular streaming, you can select Automatic, Low, Normal or High. The Automatic option adjusts the audio quality to whatever your signal strength is. If you’re a paid subscriber you’ll see a fifth option under both WiFi streaming and Cellular streaming called Very high.
How to change the audio quality on your desktop:
1. Open Spotify.
2. Click the down arrow in the top-right corner.
3. Click Settings.
4. Under Audio Quality, click the drop-down menu next to Streaming quality.
6. Choose between Low, Normal, High or Automatic options, and paid subscribers also have the Very high option.
For more on Spotify, see which Spotify plan is best for you and how Spotify stacks up against Apple Music.
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Technologies
Scary Survey Results: Teen Drivers Are Often Looking at Their Phones
New troubling research found that entertainment is the most common reason teens use their phones behind the wheel, followed by texting and navigation.

A new study reveals that teen drivers in the US are spending more than one-fifth of their driving time distracted by their phones, with many glances lasting long enough to significantly raise the risk of a crash. Published in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention and released on Thursday, the research found that, on average, teens reported looking at their phones during 21.1% of every driving trip. More than a quarter of those distractions lasted two seconds or longer, which is an amount of time widely recognized as dangerous at highway speeds.
Most distractions tied to entertainment, not emergencies
The top reason teens said they reached for their phones behind the wheel was for entertainment, cited by 65% of respondents. Texting (40%) and navigation (30%) were also common. Researchers emphasized that these distractions weren’t typically urgent, but rather habitual or social.
Teens know the risks
The study includes survey responses from 1,126 teen drivers across all four US regions, along with in-depth interviews with a smaller group of high schoolers. Most participants recognized that distracted driving is unsafe and believed their parents and peers disapproved of the behavior.
But many teens also assumed that their friends were doing it anyway, pointing to a disconnect between personal values and perceived social norms.
Teens think they can resist distractions
Interestingly, most teens expressed confidence in their ability to resist distractions. That belief, researchers suggest, could make it harder to change behavior unless future safety campaigns specifically target these attitudes.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Rebecca Robbins of Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said interventions should aim to shift social norms while also emphasizing practical steps, such as enabling «Do Not Disturb» mode and physically separating drivers from their devices.
«Distracted driving is a serious public health threat and particularly concerning among young drivers,» Robbins said. «Driving distracted doesn’t just put the driver at risk of injury or death, it puts everyone else on the road in danger of an accident.»
What this means for parents and educators
The researchers say their findings can help guide educators and parents in developing more persuasive messaging about the dangers of distracted driving. One of the recommendations is that adults need to counter teens’ beliefs that phone use while driving is productive or harmless.
While the study’s qualitative component was limited by a small and non-urban sample, the authors believe the 38-question survey they developed can be used more broadly to assess beliefs, behaviors and the effectiveness of future safety efforts.
Technologies
Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con Issues? It Might Just Be Your HDMI Cable
Make sure to use the Switch 2 cable included with the new gaming console.

As the Switch 2 continues to sell in the millions for Nintendo, it shouldn’t be a surprise that there’d be some issues with the console. It appears, however, that one problem Switch 2 owners are facing is actually just a matter of using the wrong cable.
Reddit users have posted about their Joy-Cons disconnecting when they’re playing on their Switch 2 while it’s docked, an issue spotted earlier by IGN. It does appear that, luckily, the issue can be resolved by using the included HDMI cable for the Switch 2 rather than an older, slower one — including the cable that came with the original Nintendo Switch.
Nintendo laid out the solution on its support page for when the Joy-Con 2 starts disconnecting from the console:
- Confirm that you’re using an «Ultra High Speed» HDMI cable to connect the dock to the TV. If it’s not Ultra High Speed, your console won’t perform as expected when docked.
- If you’re using a different cable than the one that came with the console, it should have printed on the cable that it’s «Ultra High Speed.»
- The HDMI cable that came with the Nintendo Switch is not «Ultra High Speed» and should not be used with the Nintendo Switch 2 dock.
Nintendo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the source of this issue.
Since the Switch 2 launch, many gamers have come to realize that Nintendo’s new console is very picky about what cables are connected to it. This goes for the HDMI cable as well as the power cable.
While the new and old Switch share the same name, they don’t share the same components. The Switch 2 is a huge upgrade in graphics power over the 2017 console, which means it needs the appropriate power supply. Not providing the Switch 2 with sufficient power could likely cause some issues, especially if the system has to do a lot of work to run a game.
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