[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!

[Sal1950]

Thrilled to hear that lossless is on the way, I thought I'd be blind and deef before it happened.  LOL
A couple of comments, that have been touched on before.

We don't need no stinkin MQA, a con ripoff to give us lossy files and call it HiFi.

Please do look into offering Atmos and 3D immersive audio files.

Those of us into multich would appreciate it very much.

God Bless gentlemen.

Sal1950

[hans-jürgen]

Concerning playback of local FLAC and/or ALAC files in a *.m4a container I checked mine again yesterday, and plain FLAC files could not be played on my Windows 10 computer, but the *.m4a files with ALAC encoded audio within still could. Maybe putting FLAC encoded audio in a *.m4a file would also work, don't know.

[Innocent_Excel]

Yep, my alac files were converted to *.m4a which worked fine.

[hans-jürgen]

These local *.m4a files can also be scrobbled to your Last.fm profile, by the way, but will only show in your recent tracks list after the next track has started, i.e. not while they are still playing without the "Scrobbling now" indicator. That should also work for *.m4a files with AAC encoded content. MP3Tag is able to edit the MPEG-4 container and the ID tags for it, I think.

[Elena]

Updated on 2021-03-02

Hey folks, 

We're happy to say that we'll be setting this idea to ''Under Consideration'' since implementing it is in our current timeline.

Starting later this year, Premium subscribers in select markets will be able to upgrade their sound quality to Spotify HiFi and listen to their favorite songs the way artists intended. 

Take a look at our newsroom article here for more info.

Cheers!

[Blueshound24]

 Elena 

 Moderator

Yours is maybe the second comment on this thread in 7 years. Why hasn't Spotify ever responded to the thousands of questions and posts here? That is atrocious CS and will not be rewarded with my money for streaming music.

Will wasapi/asio be supported for external DAC's?

Since spotify has never answered any questions on this thread I seriously doubt this will be answered either....

Good riddance Spotify...

[jo9001]

Hi Elena. When you say "it's under  consideration". What exactly does that mean?  I thought that the announcement from Spotify last week was 

that plans for lossless was going ahead?

So when you say "under consideration" you actually mean Spotify lossless is going to be available to certain people on a trail bases only with no definite decision to make lossless a permanent fixture to your Spotify customers?

[Blueshound24]

jo9001

• Spotify's history of not responding to this thread for 7 years tells me that you will not get any more responses from them so don't hold your breath waiting.

[jo9001]

1. Blueshound, I haven't much hope in getting a reply from Elena, in fact I would say there was more chance of The Pope attending the next Slayer Concert than Elena ever replying. I just wish we Spotify would be honest with us all instead of leading us up the garden path and hoping we all are lost in the long undergrowth 

[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!