Where is Spotify HiFi?

[JaspisB]

The year is almost over and no HiFi in sight. No news. No communication. Nothing. What's going on? Some info would be nice. 

[Gthvg]

I am going to pile on here: I love music and I love Spotify, been using it for years. I repeat: I love music and so over the years, I have upgraded my audio equipment. I no longer listen to music on Beats bluetooth headsets, I have a pretty cool amplifier and great speakers. Now Spotify sounds compressed and narrow. It will really suck to loose all those playlists and the Spotify algorithm which uncovers great music for me. But I will jump. Unless Spotify comes out soon with a least a timeline and, as a loyal customer, I'll probably be patient.

[Crash7386]

You can transfer over all your playlists to any of the other services using Soundizz. It only takes minutes. I jumped to TIDAL and the difference is night and day. 

[gctomas]

Its possible to transform playlists from Spotify to Tidal. Search on Google
to find how

[LawLee]

Soundiiz is a great tool for that. Its free and can transfer playlist and even synchronize the daily mixes for you daily so you can get Spotify's selection without redoing the transfer. Transferred all mine.

[Nir888]

1...2...3...4

[LawLee]

I really like Deezer Hifi also. They've got a great app and discovery AI. But I'm attracted to Qobuz because of the higher quality music and bit-accurate support for DACs using WASAPI on Windows. Qobuz is 3 dollars cheaper too.

After them, I'd have to go with Amazon or Apple. With a Chromecast with Google TV, you can do the equivalent of Spotify Connect with any of these services. I just can't do Spotify's crappy quality any more...

So many better choices now. A shakeup is coming and Spotify is going to lose market share for lack of Hifi and their controversies.

[Gthvg]

Hello,

Thought I would loop back here to share my experience. Finally decided for Apple Music as a good compromise for me and family. I get the better quality for my stereo and family can still enjoy good convenience with AirPlay and we also have a bunch of Apple devices. Cons: I hate to give more money to Apple but also catalog has a bunch of things missing as it turns out. Not any mainstream music but some stuff that my kids hear on Roblox, etc… Playlist conversion was fairly easy though Soundizz left a bunch behind with « errors ». It doesn’t say why the errors but I guess back to the catalogue on Apple Music that is not quite as extensive. I am happy with the better quality but overall this has cost me some grief with wife and kids and I also miss the convenience and reliability of Spotify connect. AirPlay is good but randomly disconnects or play the phone notifications through the stereo which is super annoying.

There you go. I am done, not coming back. But it’s too bad as Spotify does have a lot going for it. The poor quality though over time became a showstopper for me.

[Hooligan]

Very well said and the exact reasons I haven't moved on from Spotify. I've been using Qobuz more for when I'm jamming at home on our home theater system. The high res quality (24bit/192kz) is miles better than Spotify and is instantly discernable.

Qobuz has a great library, only missing a few very obscure artists, plus from what I've read, they pay artists the most out of all the streaming services. I just wish their app and queue system were better, because it's really lacking compared to Spotify.

Now I'm wondering if Spotify just gave up on hifi since Apple beat them to the punch w/o charging more, plus the fact they'd rather blow hundreds of millions on certain personalities instead of putting that into more artist pay/support and hifi.

[gvnd7eqqm0u9mkvybpnu]

I am using Spotify Premium,

Spotify for macOS (Apple Silicon)
1.1.88.612.gcc529952

How can I get Hifi audio enabled?

[gvnd7eqqm0u9mkvybpnu]

Spotify for macOS (Apple Silicon)
1.1.88.612.gcc529952

How can I get Hifi audio enabled?

[Milemar]

There is no Spotify HiFi

[LawLee]

gvnd7eqqm0u9mkvybpnu asked:

Q. How can I get Hifi audio enabled?

A. Quit Spotify Premium and join Amazon Music, Qubuz, Deezer, Apple Music or Tidal... BTW You can convert your Spotify playlists to your new HiFi service using Soundiiz or other playlist conversion services...

Cheers!

[PaulMac]

Q: How can I get Hifi audio enabled?

A: You can wait on Spotify delivering on their promise of Feb 2021 to introduce HiFi. But be prepared to wait a very long time as it looks as though it might never happen. Or as Lawlee suggested just swap to any of the other streaming platforms who already provide it. My recommendation would be Qobuz. 

[LawLee]

I very much enjoyed Spotify as you do because of some of its customer facing features. Like many here I was very interested in their Hifi offering, recognizing that CD quality, while not the pinnacle, vastly increases the listening experience over their standard offering at 320kbs.

I spent the last year in rapt attention to see if they were going to follow through. In the meantime every other service has stepped their game up and exceeded Spotify's proposed offering. I've had an opportunity to test all of the other services that are available here in America. The conclusion I came to is that I cannot trade off quality for conveniences.

There's another aspect to my streaming services that’s important. It's how well integrated the service is to my audio system. All of the services integrate well to the phone-to-Bluetooth headphones or speakers paradigm. For me I want a service that integrates well to my 5.1 AV Yamaha receivers.

Spotify connect is a great solution to this for all devices. With this great advantage though they've squandered its value. Since it can directly connect to devices like my AV receiver it has the best potential to provide that unadulterated bitstream at the highest rate available. But they're not offering high bit rate music and have said they won't for an indefinite period of time.

I would be willing to pay more than the standard premium price for the privilege of enjoying CD quality. But it seems like they're not interested in bringing that to market. If they created a marketing campaign to bring it forward, then it's likely they believed that they could have gotten it done last year.

The only things that I can speculate might be a problem, is Spotify Connect itself or the container that they were planning to use. While the rest of the industry was using AAC or MP3, Spotify was the only company using Ogg vorbis. On paper that should have produced sound quality that surpassed the other streaming services. But if you listened carefully as I did, and as reviewers did, other services streaming at 256kbs were considered superior. That made me very suspect on whether Spotify was truly delivering 320kbs.

Maybe they were trying to come up with something other than the FLAC container. Maybe Spotify Connect or their proposed streaming container would not support multi channel audio that everyone else is now offering. Perhaps they got caught off guard in this matter. I don't know because they're not talking.

While Spotify connect has the superior connection scheme, if the content isn't there, it is just a convenience feature. I happen to be fortunate to have a Yamaha receiver. With the Yamaha MusicCast application I can connect directly Qobuz, as well as a number of services to my receiver without having to use a DAC or other secondary devices like a Chromecast receiver. From a quality standpoint its as clean a connection as Spotify's solution. The value of Spotify Connect is effectively nullified for me.

I'd like to come back to Spotify and I'd be willing to pay a premium for it. For a while I was paying close to $23 a month by subscribing both to Amazon Unlimited and Qobuz. At this point, unlike you I'm not willing to pay an additional $10 for the pleasure of CD quality. I might be interested in coming back to Spotify IF they matched Qobuz's pricing.

However Qobuz has features that Spotify lacks. I love the depth of information about the recordings and the artists. It has great information about hardware. It ties into interviews and even videos from artists on YouTube. It has the right aesthetic for a serious music lover. Not having those features is a big negative on Spotify for me.

The Qobuz app on the PC and on my Android tablets greatly surpasses Spotify's offering. From the main screen you can swipe in all four cardinal directions and get useful information. Spotify's app is starting to look like a bad Swiss army knife. And while it works well to do everything, it's starting to do nothing well. When they proposed adding a new button or two for, say buying theater tickets, I cringed, it continues to loose any semblance of elegance.

I also appreciate how in Qobuz I can on the fly change the bitrate, and listen to the difference in the music. And the Qobuz interface and my MusicCast application transparently shows that my receiver is now operating all the way up to 192kbs. It's not likely that Spotify is going to be that transparent.

Yes I would be willing to pay a bit of a premium for CD quality on Spotify. But practically everyone has now added Atmos and spatial audio at no extra cost. It seems like they're sitting on their laurels. And their laurels are starting to fade.

I can't spend another dime on Spotify even though I love it. Because spending money on it only reinforces their bad behavior. Leaving loyal customers in the lurch and expecting them to continue to pay and wait is egregious.

As much as I love Spotify I won't even use their free app because I'm still putting money in their pockets. That's not going to help them to get where I'd like them to be for me to be a customer. So at some inconvenience I don't use their services even because of their advantages, because that's not going to help them get to where they need to be to survive and thrive.

And honestly, the advantages that I have through Qobuz and Amazon Music surpass what I left behind at Spotify. There is nothing more compelling than listening to high quality content.

Best wishes All, Best Wishes Spotify...

[JaspisB]

The lack of anything happening at this point is pathetic...

[user-removed]

😂 😂 People still waiting on Spotify HiFi.  😂 When will people get it through their skulls that Spotify don't give a rats you know what.  Yall should come on over to AM.  The quality is awesome.  Good luck on waiting for Lo-Fi, oh wait, you already have that 😂 

[robertomulach]

Liebes Spotify Tee

[robertomulach]

RüßerIch finde Spotify fantastisch, die beste Menuführung überhaupt. Mir fehlen nur mehr Bits. Ich besitze eine High End Anlage & es ist schade, dass ich sie nicht zur Vollendung genießen kann. Es ist fast so wie einen Ferrari oder Porsche mit angezogener Bremse zu fahren. HiFi-wurde versprochen & nicht eingehalten. Finde ich nicht seriös. Wäre selbstverständlich bereit, mehr zu bezahlen. Meine Fragen disbezüglich werden sogar von Spotify völlig ignoriert. Nicht höflich oder schön. Also Spotify, jetzt wird in die Hände gespuckt HiFi muss her. Kein Drückeberger mehr bitte. MFG, GST (GST)

[thirdlife86]

Du bist doch selbst schuld wenn du die nötigen Konsequenzen nicht ziehen willst und einer Abzocker-Bande wie Spotify weiter Geld in den Rachen wirfst. Leute wie du die mosern aber nie handeln SIND das Problem, sorry.

Würden die Leute abspringen und der Scheissladen 20% Umsatzeinbruch hinlegen wäre HiFi schon längst draussen.😂

[Blueshound24]

English please.