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

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!

Updated on 2022-01-07

Hey folks,

 

We know that HiFi quality audio is important to you. We feel the same, and we’re excited to deliver a Spotify HiFi experience to Premium users in the future. But we don’t have timing details to share yet.

 

We will of course update you here when we can.

 

Take care.

Comments
roelani

Where's this feature at?

Innocent_Excel

By the way, today I noticed that Deezer has now changed their subscription models, they raised the Premium price by 1€ but now Premium has Hifi (lossless) audio quality at the same price that Spotify currently has.

Not sure if there's actual news of this, it's being mentioned (on various pages) and you can check the prices (as Im not sure if they changed these for all the countries): https://www.deezer.com/en/

And you can see that Family has also Hifi (lossless) and they offer annual cheaper price for the Premium (25% discount).

I think this is interesting move and makes Deezer now very competitive.

Innocent_Excel

So, Apple Music went ahead before Spotify, now Deezer made changes and dropped the price.

When and if will Spotify add Hifi to their service? This year, next year? What for and why they haven't done any advancement on this matter?

Feels like the other companies (especially Apple) is making Spotify look embarrasingly slow..now Spotify is:

Spotify is testing a less restrictive ad-supported tier costing $0.99 a month

https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/3/22607203/spotify-plus-ad-supported-tier-unlimited-skips-on-demand-...

Why is this? Did they forgot Hifi?

Audioplayer

Deezer has not lowered it’s price since Amazon Music announced lossless and high resolution audio almost two years ago. Deezer premium is still only mp3 quality and it’s lossless tier is what they lowered the price on to $14.99/month and it is only CD quality not higher resolutions. One would think Deezer would of lowered their prices again to match Apple Music like Amazon Music did when Apple announced lossless and high resolution audio quality. Yet Deezer hasn’t done that yet. Making Deezer look like a rather poor choice actually. Maybe they will be more forced to change when/if Spotify actually does something. The reason (other than Spotify being dumb, arrogant and lazy) that they haven’t come out with a HiFi tier yet is because Apple’s announcement threw a monkey wrench in their plans and now they have most likely had to go back and re-negotiate with the labels so they can also offer higher resolutions on top of the lossless they were going to provide and offer it in more regions in order to compete with Apple otherwise Spotify looks like dopes (too late Spotify you already do) and they risk losing customers or not gaining any which of course is bad for business. Now had Spotify just done the right thing to begin with and would actually listen to it’s customers and would implement all the features they ask for we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Spotify won’t be offering a HiFi tier for a little longer now depending on how long negotiations will probably take. And seeing they weren’t really ready to begin with upon their first announcement they probably don’t have everything else worked out yet that they need to provide for it. They also will still have to ingest all of the lossless files into their catalog which is also going to take some time. Way to screw up Spotify! Your actual HiFi launch better be perfect. Don’t half ass it like Apple and Amazon have done otherwise you’ll end up looking worse than you already do. Tidal is really ripping off it’s customers with it’s inferior files and it’s price for such! Even those that get a discount in my opinion. Qobuz really needs to get it’s act together too in order to continue it’s pricing but at least they are offering the best sound quality for a fair price. They just need to improve their feature set quicker than they have been. Problem for them is they are such a small company right now compared to the rest they just don’t have the resources yet to go any faster than they already have. Last major holdouts then would be Pandora/SiriusXM and YouTube Music.

Innocent_Excel

They have lowered prices (the Hifi was 14,99€/month), and Premium now has Hifi.

Well, basically Premium price was raised 1€ but now it's even better as don't have to use mp3 anymore, but can listen to lossless flac instead.

Atleast in Finland the it shows this. If you don't believe still check this one out :

Clipboard02.jpg

Not bad deal if going for the annual plan as it gives 25% discount.

rastaman2000

@Audioplayer

 

Why do you think Spotify should "negotiate with labels"? Labels, distributors and musicians supply/upload their music to Spotify in lossless FLAC and WAV formats - so Spotify already has the files, just currently down-converting/compressing them for streaming.

 

Licensing and royalties have nothing in common with audio quality - Spotify doesn't need anyone's consent for launching HiFi.

rastaman2000

Apple Music Growing 2.5 Times Faster Than Spotify, Analyst Claims

https://www.investors.com/news/technology/apple-music-growing-faster-than-spotify-analyst-claims/

 

This was even back in 2020, i.e., long before Apple launched Lossless...

Audioplayer

@rastaman2000

Yet Apple Music had to convert all of it’s files to lossless although it gets it’s files the same way Spotify does as you say. Why do you think Spotify is any different? We don’t exactly know what the negotiations completely entail as we are not allowed to know. While I agree with you they shouldn’t. However from some postings from companies like Qobuz or other industry insiders it seems anything is negotiable. It makes sense given Spotify’s lack of progress and complete silence in this matter. If they could just of flipped the switch so to speak to HiFi they would of done so immediately to smack Apple back. Which they clearly haven’t done and they have had ample time to do so. Something’s going on.


@samppa3

saw some posts on Reddit hours after your first post. Not worldwide yet but it does seem it’s coming maybe in September. Looks like only lossless and not higher resolutions yet not cheaper than the competition that offers more for your money.  Might be fine for some people but Deezer still has limits more so than it’s competition thus I still don’t think it is the best of choices depending on ones use case. It definitely doesn’t fit mine but it could if they improved a few things but they have also been too stupid to listen to their customers.

StevenSGT98
Bandwidth costs money.
Audioplayer

@stevenSGT98

 

true but it is also cheaper than it used to be. Maybe YouTube can cry about it but for audio the cost is less. Smaller music streaming companies also already offer lossless. Spotify has no real excuse. If you are worried about data usage on your phone either get an unlimited plan or continue to use the mp3 tier until you can or want to afford an unlimited plan. At least there is more choice for mobile users currently price wise than there is for home internet users that may be throttled on their data usage. This practice will hopefully be eliminated one day as things improve. Video streaming is driving the need for improvement among just the uptick in general data use.