It was practically 4 years in the past that Spotify touted its subsequent large function for music lovers: lossless streaming, aka Spotify HiFi.
Lastly, Spotify Premium customers would get the possibility to “improve their sound high quality” from Spotify’s lossy 320Kbps Ogg Vobis codec to lossless CD-quality audio, with Billie Eilish and Finneas extoling the virtues of lossless Spotify HiFi streaming in a promotional video. The launch date for Spotify HiFi: “later this yr,” which means someday earlier than the top of 2021.
Left unsaid however implied in Spotify’s February 2021 announcement was that Premium subscribers can be charged additional for lossless streaming. How a lot additional wasn’t clear, however the entire “improve” wording positive made it sound such as you’d should pay extra for Spotify HiFi, thus serving to Spotify inch its method towards profitability.
The plan made good sense. In spite of everything, in early 2021, lossless and high-resolution music streaming was nonetheless a distinct segment market occupied by the likes of Deezer, Qobuz, and (most of all) Tidal, with charges as excessive as $20 a month. (Spotify had already been testing a lossless add-on as early as 2017 at numerous value factors.) So why shouldn’t Spotify cost additional for lossless music streaming too?
Three months later, Apple and Amazon got here alongside and ruined every little thing.
Individually however on the identical day, the 2 firms rolled out their very own lossless streaming choices. Efficient instantly, each Apple and Amazon mentioned they might go the lossless method, topping Spotify HiFi with help for not simply CD-quality tunes but in addition high-resolution audio tracks all the way in which as much as 24-bit/192kHz (CD-quality audio is proscribed to 16-bit/44.1kHz), with spatial audio besides.
The capper? Apple and Amazon’s paid music streaming subscribers would get all these lossless tunes for no additional cost.
It was a intelligent transfer that neatly undercut Spotify’s HiFi ambitions whereas additionally blowing up the enterprise fashions of the area of interest lossless streamers (all of whom needed to drastically overhaul their pricing plans within the ensuing years). Hastily, Spotify didn’t wish to speak about Spotify HiFi anymore.
It wasn’t till January 2022 that Spotify lastly broached the topic of Spotify HiFi once more, saying it was “excited to ship a Spotify HiFi expertise to Premium customers” however that “we don’t have timing particulars to share but.” A month later, Spotify CEO David Ek blamed “licensing” points for the delay.
Then adopted months of cussed silence, punctuated by rumors and leaks about Spotify HiFi’s destiny. There was chatter in late 2022 a couple of supposed “Spotify Platinum” plan that will supply lossless audio together with “limited-ad” podcasts and different options. By June 2023, the rumored Spotify Platinum plan morphed right into a rumored “Supremium” tier with lossless tunes and “expanded” entry to audiobooks. Almost a yr later, phrase had it that “Supremium” had been changed by a “Music Professional” add-on that packed lossless audio with “superior mixing tunes.”
Lastly in July 2024, Spotify’s Ek floated the concept of a “deluxe model of Spotify” with “all the advantages” of an ordinary Premium membership plus “much more management, rather a lot greater high quality throughout the board, and another issues that I’m not prepared to speak about but.” Ek recommended the brand new “deluxe” Spotify (which has but to reach) may cost a little “one thing like $5 above the present premium tier.”
Behind the years-long delay, the rumors, and the trial balloons, it appeared like Spotify was casting about for a purpose to cost additional for lossless music streaming—an argument that was powerful to make provided that Apple, Amazon, and others weren’t charging extra for lossless tracks. (I’ve reached out to Spotify for remark.)
Eventually—maybe for lack of a greater concept—Spotify relented, saying Wednesday that it could supply free of charge lossless audio to its current Premium subscribers, much like what Apple and Amazon have been doing since mid-2021.
“The wait is lastly over,” mentioned Spotify VP Gustav Gyllenhammar in a press launch. “We’ve taken time to construct this function in a method that prioritizes high quality, ease of use, and readability at each step, so that you at all times know what’s occurring underneath the hood. With Lossless, our premium customers will now have an excellent higher listening expertise.”
Spotify Lossless (the “Spotify HiFi” moniker has apparently been banished) nonetheless has some drawbacks in comparison with lossless listening on Apple and Amazon; audio high quality on Spotify is capped at 24-bit/44.1kHz, versus full-on 24-bit/192hHz for its opponents (good luck telling the distinction, to be truthful), and there’s no point out of native spatial audio help.
In any occasion, Spotify wound up singing Apple’s and Amazon’s tune when it got here to lossless audio, folding it into its commonplace subscription plans for no additional cost. What else might it do?
