[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!

[sephraes]

Well...Amazon has managed to figure this out. I'm going to trial run them and see if they have everything I need. If they do, Spotify might be over for me. It's a shame...it seems like there shouldn't be this much barrier, and people are generally willing to spend a few more dollars for higher quality.

[teqteq]

You are looking at this idea backwards:

You can’t look at this as “there aren’t many users that want this”. Instead it’s “how many customers are becoming loyal to other brands because of this”. “How many families am I losing because of this”. “How many people are publicisizing other brands because they use another service, simply by sharing songs”. “How much power-user data are we losing”? Your HiFi members are possibly your pivotal nodes in your network data, liking more tracks and more variety, linking together genres. 

Also it’s such super-easy publicity! In fact look at what Amazon Music are doing. No one knew them until they released Amazon Music HD. But now they’re all over the media (even in Australia where we can’t access it yet). 

Seems a no-brainer, but that’s just me I guess. Meanwhile I’m staying with Deezer, when I’ve really just wanted to switch back to Spotify. But it’s a deal-breaker. 

[Spiritz69]

Hi, I'm from Israel and we also don't have Amazon hd, but using vpn once to
install it on Windows/Android will solve it forever, and yes the sound
sounds great though it less comfortable than spotify.

[DanielBazak]

It's 2020 in a min. Please make it happen!

[gloptical]

Is it me or they're completely ignoring us? To think that what I liked most about Spotify was how it "understands" me (my taste in music, actually)... It might sound silly, but it doesn't feel like that anymore. 

[DanielBazak]

This is exactly how I feel.. And honestly I might just move to Tidal to get
more out of my money

[teqteq]

I just moved away from Tidal. The sound quality is great, but it’s got its own problems. Like it doesn’t sort playlists or let you search them in “Add To Playlist” which is a big problem for me having 200+ playlists. And depending on your musical taste, the endless promotion of pop Hip-Hop artists gets old. 

I just switched to Deezer. Time will tell how that works out. First problem: max 2000 tracks in your Favourites. No current plan to fix. But you can have 2000 playlists of 2000 songs each (whereas apparently Spotify allow 10,000 songs max). So if they can’t fix that I’m not sure which I’ll move to (hence hedging my bets trying to get Spotify to shape up). 
But I guess after 5 years, no word from Spotify for 2 years, 286 pages of comments, and 18,249 votes, it seems no one is listening. 

[teqteq]

Tidal might be your best bet. I just left them though. They don’t listen much either after raising many support tickets with them (and no forum). Sound quality is great. But with over 200 playlists all sorted entirely by last update date (instead of alphabetical) and no action after so many times contacting them I gave up. Also the incessant promotion of pop Hip-Hop artists that I have less-than-no interest in such as Kanye, I moved on. 

I’m with Deezer now but the 2000 track limit in you Favourites is going to be a deal breaker if not fixed (they allow 2000 playlists x 2000 tracks, whereas Spotify and Tidal allow 10,000 tracks total I believe). I’m trying to convince Deezer to change it. But so far they’ve said it’s not on their roadmap (hence trying to convince Spotify to change, but after 5 years, no response for 2 years, 286 pages of comments, and 18,248 votes, seems they’re not interested - especially given their official position is that it’s not something they’re interested in right now). 

[Matthillica]

I'm with you teqteq... I have actually been thinking about trying Amazon Music HD since we're already locked into Prime. From what I can tell, they have just as much music available as Spotify.

One thing that's probably worth noting is that (at least for me) the user interface and experience while using the app or whatever is pretty important to me... probably as important as sound quality. I listen to a ton of music on the go through my mobile phone, and I'm so familiar with Spotify's layout, etc. that anything less intuitive would annoy me (not that Spotify is perfect by any means). 

It's also probably worth researching if HD is available on your service via mobile. A lot of those services only offer HD through their desktop experience or only have a limited selection of stuff on HD.

I found these two links to be really helpful:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_on-demand_music_streaming_services

https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/5/15168340/lossless-audio-music-compression-test-spotify-hi-fi-tidal 

[Blueshound24]

For those of you who haven't read this article in Varietydotcom, Spotify VP and head of investor relations said they are not interested in lossless streaming. So it's time to jump ship friends, like many of us have. Spotify DOES NOT CARE about improving their streaming beyond MP3 quality.

This thread is a joke to Spotify's higher management. So to Spotify, here's what I think is funny, I sub to Amazon HD annual rate of $129/year which is $10.75/month and couldn't be happier. 

“We haven’t talked much about [a high-fidelty option],” he said when asked whether the company has plans to launch its own high-definition service. “If you go back and look at it, it’s not really something that’s been a big differentiator among the different services. It’s really about user interface, algorithms, playlists, discoverability and those type of things. “We think that in terms of what consumers are looking for, it’s not something that’s really resonated.”

https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/spotify-dismisses-amazon-hd-high-definition-audio-1203338841/