Whether you decide to stream or download your music, you’ll want to ensure your phone is working with the most data possible. Larger data packets translate to more information, which generally means better-sounding audio. The downside is that it will use up more cellular data if you are streaming and take up more space on your phone if you are downloading. Still, it might be the only way to get decent-sounding audio through Android Auto. To do this, many apps allow you to adjust the playback quality in their settings menu.
Using Spotify as an example, start by tapping the settings icon in the top right corner and navigate to the Audio Quality section. Here, you will find separate dropdown menus for Wi-Fi streaming quality, cellular streaming quality, and download quality. The “Very High” quality settings require the user to have a Spotify Premium account, but free accounts can still be set to “High” quality. Once these adjustments have been set, you might also need to make sure that the “Save Data” setting is turned off, as it automatically sets your audio quality to “Low” in order to preserve data. Some reports have also claimed that the “Normalize Volume” setting can muffle the sound, too, so you might want to switch that off as well.