[All Platforms][Music] HiFi Quality - Lossless Streaming 16bit 44.1khz

[timiambeing]

I've just started a trial of Qobuz - they offer the standard 320kbps as well as lossless FLAC streaming (and high res downloads if you purchase them) the sound quality is noticeably better and on classical it's just wonderful to get all that resolution through your hi-fi or headphones! The catalogue has a way to go to get to Spotify's level, but they are getting there. The iPad app isn't' too bad (the desktop app is in need of an upgrade but I hear they are putting all their efforts into mobile apps right now).

So - lossless streaming - if Qobuz can do it then so can Spotify, they must have the same source - and obviously if you are asking £20 a month then those record labels and distributors take enough notice to make the high res tracks available for streaming. What this all means is soon, very soon, we will get lossless streaming and closely followed by high res downloads - but if Spotify aren't careful it will be Apple who get there first with an audiophile premium offering, and when they do it will be a much harder market place to make money in!

** please don't lump this suggestion with the main one on lossless downloads, that's a different idea entirely guys!

[timiambeing]

I've just started a trial of Qobuz - they offer the standard 320kbps as well as lossless FLAC streaming (and high res downloads if you purchase them) the sound quality is noticeably better and on classical it's just wonderful to get all that resolution through your hi-fi or headphones! The catalogue has a way to go to get to Spotify's level, but they are getting there. The iPad app isn't' too bad (the desktop app is in need of an upgrade but I hear they are putting all their efforts into mobile apps right now).

[timiambeing]

So - lossless streaming - if Qobuz can do it then so can Spotify, they must have the same source - and obviously if you are asking £20 a month then those record labels and distributors take enough notice to make the high res tracks available for streaming. What this all means is soon, very soon, we will get lossless streaming and closely followed by high res downloads - but if Spotify aren't careful it will be Apple who get there first with an audiophile premium offering, and when they do it will be a much harder market place to make money in!

[Will1831]

I think it's too much of a shortcut to say they don't listen to their customers. Even though you're right but the statement could be mitigated with the support they give on a everyday basis solving incidents and issues, as well as the device support that grows everyday.

It's no doubt they will implement hires streaming. Question is when ?

From a customer perspective : many offer are available with a reasonable price tag, switch is easy.

From a company perspective : the later the implementation the more customers they might loose. How many ? Short term impact i guess around 25423 (which is the number of votes of the idea), mid term impact : anything between 25423 and milions due to lossless streaming becoming standard.

Having tested Tidal and Qobuz, i must say for a fact that quality is no doubt better BUT none have the easy accessibility of Spotify Connect ! So anyone not caring about hires quality might stick to Spotify for that.

[Vitezslavfiala]

Good day, I understand your discussion, but we need help !!! Spotify coughs at our interests !!! We only want one single and that working button dislike across the entire application. The dislay button doesn't work and the moderators pushed our thread to the sidelines.

Please help and click on us in our thread: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/All-Platforms-quot-Don-t-Like-Button-quot-should-be-adde...

Thank you very much !!!

[decooney]

Various reports about more talk vs. action from Spotify.  

As they say "Talk is Cheap".   

https://world-today-news.com/spotify-hifi-the-music-streaming-giant-postpones-the-feature/

[GBillett]

Its official - Spotify have postponed the introduction of HiFi until 'the future',  though remains unspecific about a date.  At least consumers who want lossless music can now make decisions,  there are a number of very good alternatives. eg Apple, Amazon, Qobuz, Deezer.  

I hope Spotify learn from this debacle and in future treat their users with more transparency and respect.

'It is finally the German site Golem who announced that “The launch of Spotify HiFi has been postponed indefinitely”. The site did have a response from Spotify about the arrival of this formula:

“Artists and fans have told us that Spotify HiFi is important to them. We agree and look forward to bringing the Spotify HiFi experience to our premium users in the future, but we cannot provide further details yet ”.  '

https://world-today-news.com/spotify-hifi-the-music-streaming-giant-postpones-the-feature/

[LawLee]

You guys ever heard of the acronym FUD. The letters stand for fear uncertainty and doubt. In marketing it's used as a technique. When competitors have capability that puts at risk a company, at times the organization may leak or promote a upcoming new product that is competitive with their competition. Fear uncertainty and doubt can cause a certain sector of customers to stay with a company that has an inferior product out of the worry that investment in something else maybe wasted.

I'm sure there are people who are staying in Spotify, as I was out of FUD. Ever hoping Hifi would come, I kept paying my monthly $9.95. I realized I spent the better part of a year in expectation of something, When there was no need to. I have a sizable music collection in CD's. I absolutely abhor the quality of modern recordings, mostly pop which have very little dynamic range or subtle instrumentality. I started a project of ripping a few CDs to lossless flac at comparing them to Spotify premium and the other services.

I'll tell you something I noticed. From my critical listening even the best lossless services come close but don't sound as good as a locally created lossless flac rips. Qobuz comes the closest. I decided to go ahead and rip my entire collection in flac which only took a couple of days. Still struggling with whether to keep Amazon Unlimited or Qobuz, or both. But with this news story Spotify has made its position clear. Anybody that's hanging on waiting for Hifi from Spotify don’t let FUD keep you stuck. There's a whole world of wonderful services out there to help you experience music at a higher level. Since there's no long term commitment it's easy to come back when they get their act together. Best wishes Spotify. I hope you get it together.

[GBillett]

I am angry too - I waited 9 months on a false promise.  Though to believe that Spotify never meant to introduce HiFi is,  I feel, unbelievable.  My reading is that Apple and Amazon 's dramatic price reduction on lossless music blew Spotify's commercial plan out of the water.  That,  and their pre-occupation with diluting their main product/diversifying ( podcasts,  investment in war technology etc ),  have made introducing HiFi currently commercially unacceptable.  To believe Spotify deliberately lied  to its paying customers to introduce fud is ascribing a level of contempt that Spotify does not deserve.  But I may be wrong 🙂

I chose Qobuz and enjoy the music-centric service it provides.  Otherwise Apple and Amazon are great alternatives.

[LawLee]

GBillett I can't say that Spotify deliberately lied to us. That they trotted out all this slick copy and videos may indicate that they thought they were going to be able to capitalize on that functionality. After all Amazon, Tidal and Qobuz charged a premium for lossless content. I think the fact that Amazon and Apple are giving lossless away for their standard price may have knocked Spotify back on their heels. So all their great talk about how important it is to get it out for artists and listeners got trumped by their financial interests.

But FUD something that my company in the Silicon Valley employs. It's not contemptible for companies to do it. It's a way to hold on to customers. It's not lying on Spotify's part. The FUD proposition was on my part. I hung on hoping they'd deliver. What I realize is there's no value hanging on. I don't lose a thing by leaving. And I'm not going to attribute benevolence to accompany who's principally interested in profits. I have said in my post get there with that I’d be willing to pay a premium for CD quality. Clearly not willing or able to bring it to market at this time. It may be a technical issue like with Spotify connect that won't let them be competitive. Who's to say? They're not talking.

I didn't call Spotify evil. They are neither good nor evil. There are a company. They make business decisions amorally. Go back and look at my posts and you'll see that have always pulled for them. Don't think for a moment that they're not going to do what's in their best financial interest. There’s only 26,000 of their millions of customers requested Hifi as a feature. I’m not in my peer group. I’m not their target audience. Perhaps their focus on podcasts, audio books, buying concert tickets keeps their loyal fanbase happy. I am interested in none of those things. When all of these things are tacked onto the Spotify app I can imagine the app looking more cluttered and confusing.

Like you other services offer the features I want. And as a consumer I need to do the same thing, vote with my dollars. I’m not mad at the company. What purpose would that serve? It's simply that for the way I listen to music Spotify no longer makes sense. For now...

[LawLee]

Interesting podcast to consider. It reinforces the idea that "beyond lossless CD quality" is not as significant as some think.

Ecoustics Podcast Interview with Dr. Mark Waldrep: Is Hi-Res Audio More Hype Than Reality? - ecousti...

Food for thought...

“Record labels, other than audiophile labels, don’t care about the sound fidelity of the recordings they release.”

“Hi-res audio doesn’t matter [for consumers]. It’s a marketing term to sell more records and charge more. People can’t hear the difference.”

“No album made before 2000 can ever be called hi-res, because the masters were not hi-res.”

“Loudness wars, compression, reverb during mastering are what’s destroying fidelity — not the [encoding] format”

“Just because audio is placed [wrapped] in a hi-res bucket, doesn’t make it hi-res.”

“MQA is dead, irrelevant, and should go away now that Apple/Amazon have lossless.”

“There is no such thing as ‘what the artist intended.’ It’s ‘what the label wants.’ Labels want loud, because louder sells better.”

[NoNoise]

I like being able to purchase "hi-res" files via Qobuz or HDTracks (or even
Bandcamp sometimes has them), but for a streaming service, CD Quality is
more than enough.

[Faintandfuzzy]

This is really a red herring to the topic…I am less concerned about real hi
rez…say 24/192 than I am about simply getting what Spotify
promised…uncompressed 16/44. There is a large sound sound difference
between that and the 320 bps we have now.