[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!

[Sam_H_]

YEP

[Ynohifi]

Who is ready to jump ship ?  

I am.

Would have gladly paid more for Hi-Fi.

[LawLee]

Ynohifi et al,

Already gone.

<https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/All-Platforms-Music-HiFi-Quality-Lossless-Streaming-16bi...>

I'm now a paid subscriber to Amazon Music unlimited and Qobuz. But if you add that up I'm paying $23 a month. So clearly if Spotify had Hifi I might have paid more too. Too bad...

[ajmarini]

IMHO opinion, the lack of transparency is worse than the lack of the feature.  Offering a HiFi "tier" is pointless now since all the competitors have CD quality at the $10 price point. Now, it would need to be an MQA tier or lossless at the base price.

Right now, the only thing keeping me on Spotify is Spotify connect, and it's a little sad that it's convenience rather than music quality given where all the competitors are at. I'll spend the next week or so exploring the options to see which is the most convenient and which has the best selection of music.

If your playlists are keeping you with Spotify, start researching playlist migration apps. 

[ajmarini]

Also, this feature was requested in 2014...over 7 years ago. We all said the competition would overtake them with this feature. We were right.

Now we are saying that the competition will overtake them in the market. This will also come to fruition if they don't act now.

[LawLee]

What can the problem be, and why so much silence? Spotify is arguably the most successful music streaming service to date. They subsidized their service by providing a free ad-based service. So they make money on their subscribers whether or not they pay for the service. This was a smart move because clearly their features won people over from other services like them such as Pandora.

Clearly paid subscribers go right into their bottom line and most services have a $9.95 offering. So that must be the point at which a service can be profitable structurally. It can't be content conversion. Other services say that record companies supply them music at CD quality or higher for them to stream.  It can't be a bandwidth issue because even the small guys like Qobuz who get the worst breaks on bandwidth are distributing hi-res music. 

I'm spitballing here, but maybe we're looking at this from the wrong perspective. Spotify Connect was introduced in September 2013. Arguably at the time, it was the most forward-thinking solution. Devices like our cell phones, even speakers, TVs and my Yamaha receivers can directly connect to the Internet and Spotify connect, so they're not bandwidth limited through transmission by the music source player (your phone) or Wi-Fi or Bluetooth the way that Airplay is. Brilliant.  

So if the issue of hifi is not Internet bandwidth, local transmission bandwidth, cost, or music material based, what does that leave? Spotify Connect. Spotify Connect as a protocol was designed at a time when the idea of high-res music, and multi-channel music was not a concern. I have never seen a published specification on Spotify connect anywhere. No description of its bandwidth limitations or the number of channels that it can support. 

Perhaps it's just a bitstream like PCM which is decoded by the device, which I hope is true. But if that is true and it's a decoded bitstream that's limited to stereo or to perhaps 44.1kHz then it makes sense why they made the announcement about CD quality not hi-res. For me I would not care. If Spotify would give me CD quality add a true maximum of 1411kbs, like the CD I would be happy. 

If it is a bitstream protocol that has to be decoded by the device then unfortunately all the devices released with Spotify connect built in have been hard coded to process their bitstream. This means my receiver and all of the millions of devices that are using Spotify Connect currently have a built in limitation. 

No problem, give us Hifi now. Next year you can give us Spotify Connect 2 with 192khz HiRes and Dolby Atmos support. Or work with the vendors that to release firmware to bypass this whatever limitations there are. Apple released Airplay 2 after all. I believe Sonos did something similar. This was done likely to address their limitations on their aging protocols. While looking forward, at the same time they need to keep supporting the Spotify Connect classic protocol on all these legacy devices and everybody should be happy. 

But talk about what's going on. Without doing so you're leaving folks like me who are fans of your service to wonder, and wander. Personally, I've tried Dolby Atmos on all of the services that offer it and honestly I don't find it compelling. But what I do find compelling is listening to a recording like “Bohemian Rhapsody” in hi-res stereo. On my home theater it's breathtaking. So either release Hifi now, or tell us why it's delayed. Otherwise your user base is going to continue to accelerate in its decline. Don't get me wrong I'm a fan I want you to succeed. I had been happy with the service overall. All we want is a little transparency.

[inetbas]

Broken promises are a bad thing to do… leaving Spotify again. Back to Apple with an Apple One family account. More features for the same price.  Even storage and games. Already having Timely provided lyrics and lossless audio streaming to my av-set.   2022 means bye bye Spotify for me and likely many. When breaking  a promise, you break a bond.

Once I have sorted that Airplay works in a simple way also with my new Philips OLED806 Android TV in combo with my av-receiver for my household, we all leave Spotify planet  and join Apple One family.  I am the only 100% android user in the family, the other family members mostly have Apple gear. 

[BrooksChen]

I have nothing to say ....

Bye ~

[tatted85]

That was a cute marketing gimmick.  Just canceled my premium subscription.  Spotify sucks

[decooney]

I canceled too.