CORTIS Surpass 100M Streams as Spotify Launches Lossless Audio
The K-pop rookie group CORTIS are celebrating a major career milestone as their debut album surpasses 100 million streams on Spotify, a new record for this year’s debutants. The achievement coincides with Spotify’s announcement of its long-awaited Lossless audio feature, which is now being rolled out to Premium subscribers in the UK and other select markets, promising a higher-fidelity listening experience for music fans.
Rookie Group’s Meteoric Rise
The five-member group CORTIS—comprising Martin, James, Juhun, Seonghyeon, and Geonho—has seen its debut album, ‘COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES’, exceed 100 million cumulative streams on the platform as of 12th October. This milestone, reached just over a month after the album’s release, marks the fastest time a new K-pop group has achieved this feat in the current year.
The album’s remarkable performance is not attributed to a single hit but to the broad success of its multiple tracks. The six-song album, which includes a digital-exclusive version of ‘What You Want (feat. Teezo Touchdown)’, has seen several tracks gain significant traction. The intro song, ‘GO!’, leads the way with 35.61 million streams, closely followed by ‘FaSHioN’ with 26.14 million. The title track ‘What You Want’ and ‘JoyRide’ have also proven popular, securing 17.03 million and 11.25 million streams respectively, demonstrating the album’s consistent appeal.
Domestic Revival and International Expansion
Notably, the intro track ‘GO!’ has experienced a resurgence on domestic music charts. Even after the group’s initial promotional activities concluded, the song gained renewed attention following a strong performance on the US Billboard charts and its inclusion in a promotional video for Major League Baseball’s (MLB) postseason. This exposure propelled the track back into the Melon daily chart at 97th place on 4th October, and it has since climbed to a new peak of 86th as of 12th October.
Meanwhile, CORTIS is actively expanding its presence overseas, attracting significant interest from the US market. The group recently became the first Korean artist to be named an ‘Honorary Falconer’ for Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC). In another first for a K-pop artist, CORTIS has entered into a partnership with the energy drink brand Red Bull, which led to an invitation to the ‘Red Bull Dance Your Style World Final’ in Los Angeles.
Spotify Responds with High-Fidelity Audio
As artists like CORTIS continue to break streaming records, Spotify is enhancing the listening experience for its paid subscribers. The platform has officially begun rolling out its hotly anticipated Lossless audio feature, providing richer, more detailed sound quality.
“The wait is finally over. We’re thrilled that lossless sound is now available to our Premium subscribers,” said Gustav Gyllenhammar, VP of Subscriptions at Spotify. “Quality, straightforward use, and clarity were paramount at every stage of developing this feature. With Lossless, our Premium users can now enjoy an even better listening experience.”
This upgrade is part of Spotify’s ongoing commitment to improving its Premium service, which already includes popular features such as Jam, collaborative mixing tools, and expertly curated global playlists.
How Lossless Works
The new feature allows users to stream music in up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC format. To manage data consumption, subscribers can choose their audio quality for Wi-Fi, mobile data, and downloads, with ‘Lossless’ now added to the existing options of ‘Low’, ‘Normal’, ‘High’, and ‘Very High’.
Lossless audio is available on mobile devices, computers, and tablets, as well as on many Spotify Connect-enabled devices from brands like Sony, Bose, and Samsung, with more to be added. Users must manually enable the feature on each device, confirmed by a ‘Lossless’ indicator on the ‘Now Playing’ screen. For the optimal experience, Spotify recommends using Wi-Fi and either wired headphones or non-Bluetooth speakers, as Bluetooth technology currently lacks the bandwidth required for a true lossless transmission.
The feature is being gradually introduced in over 50 markets throughout October, with Premium subscribers in the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Australia, and Japan among the first to gain access.
