[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!

[supergeek]

jo9001

It was officially announced, Under Consideration is just their internal community term to say it's happening but at this point you should have no fear because it's coming. I hope it'll be available for many markets initially and not just a few, i want it in EU as well.

As already mentioned support for Wasapi/external dac could be really appreciated!

[dkhantivong]

Is CD quality good enough? 16 bit 44.1 khz is decent, but that just takes me back to the days of listening to a portable CD player. What about Hi-Res audio like 24 bit 44.1 khz and higher? If Spotify will be offering any kind of lossless audio, they might as well offer higher-than-CD quality. Other streaming services are already doing it. Tidal has their MQA integration, Qobuz offers Hi-Res streaming, and so does Amazon Music (if you sign up for their HD offering). We definitely have the bandwidth for it, times are much different now than when they were when this thead/discussion was started. All wireless carriers now have 5G to meet the growing demand of high speed data.

[Narmo1]

I love elena's post!

It's really funny as an explanation.

As I said, I'm at Qobuz but I love coming back to this post regularly to have the opportunity to read this answer.

CD quality under study.

They are funny at Spotify.

Qobuz did not even study hi-res, it was immediately accessible!

Okay, I'll leave it to you, I have some CD and hi-res listening to do! 

[lawrie124]

SPOTIFY MANAGMENT PLEASE TAKE NOTE

I know it's been a long time coming but I think we should also give some credit back to Spotify for finally releasing details that that a Hifi tier is at last likely to appear.
The 'under consideration' term as I understand it is their way of fileing the subject matter and can mean that they haven't got any further information that they are willing to release about it at present. 
I do fully appreciate that we are all waiting for this and that it has and is taking way too long to come through from development to the Spotify customers. 

With regard to the overall sound quality, CD quality is all you need as it's covers the full bandwidth of what most human people can hear.
There is a lot of marketing hype with regard to MQA, Hi Res, ect as it's there for those in search of snake oil nirvana sound improvements that technically may be there on paper but no real use unless you have the hearing of a bat or super human hearing. 
There is lots of information about this information on the internet from Audiophile experts, and from my personal experience the only format that offers a notable and significant improvement over CD quality sound is DSD audio of which is relatively rare and wouldn't be available through Spotify anyway.

Spotify should address that their Hifi tier level sound quality should be enabled for use with proper HIfi systems that will often have high quality external DACs.
I would hope that most people who require the HIfi tier level have a good quality system to reveal the difference in the upgraded sound quality, as there would be absolutely no point in running a cheap mono one box portable stereo with built in Spotify connect and then hope to hear large sound improvements as I very much doubt anyone truly would. 
My simple point is that people must realise that you need a resolving system to show the differences, and that thankfully can be achieved for a relatively affordable price these days.

*As always these are all just my own personal thoughts and views. 

[visuelz]

From Spotify's press release, "Artists and fans have told us that sound quality is important to them. We agree, and that’s why today at Stream On we announced Spotify HiFi. "

I guess I have a problem with them agreeing that sound quality is important. It took them 8 years to agree. Nevertheless, this is still a good thing for the community. Looking forward to better audio quality. Maybe we'll see lossless some day.

[user-removed]

As long as it's made available on the family plan, I'm OK with this.

[Beekie]

@Elena Thanks a lot for this update! The only thing I wonder about is the term 'select markets'. I'm a Premium member for years so would be a huge bummer if my country (the Netherlands), or the way I am subscribed (got my subscription via a tv broadcasting service) would not be allowed to stream hifi music...

[Sal1950]

I moved to Amazon some time back after years with Spotify and I still miss it's quality interface and huge catalog of music. I'm very much hoping that the HiFi stream will be available over Spotify Connect directly into my Marantz AVR and not require some other fancy hardware or software to access it like most of the others do..  If so I will immediately renew my subscription.

TIA  Sal1950

[Happyaudio77]

Now that they're going to implement this, they need to have a WASAPI, Direct Sound, or ASIO as options to maximize this Hifi. 

[apecat]

@dkhantivong 16/44 is more than enough. In fact, "high-res" is actually detrimental to playback quality, as explained here by the guy who created Vorbis, Spotify's standard lossy codec.