Cool but not curious. That's for the marketers who are trying to set it.
Spotify HiFi
Looks like it may actually happen this time. Curious to know what the final monthly will be for this tier?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.whathifi.com/us/amp/news/spotify-hi-fi-tier-finally-launching-to-of...
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.whathifi.com/us/amp/news/spotify-hi-fi-tier-finally-launching-to-of...
52 responses Add your response
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I will certainly check the Spotify HiFi quality. If they are comparable to Tidal HiFi, then - if Tidal does not allow me to control my laptop with their "connect" feature, I will move to Spotify hifi.Tidal sounds phenomenal compared to the current Spotify premium. Not very thrilled to control Tidal on the laptop using mConnect HD app (paid version). |
That is how it typically works in my experience. Apple Music and Spotify have vastly superior algorithms for picking out new content that you may enjoy or dialing in a weekly playlist that caters to your personal tastes. I would never give up using one of them because for me the content is more important, if I have to choose, than the quality. Not interested in listening to hi-res music I don’t care about. But I also wouldn’t give up Qobuz without a fight because it definitely sounds the best and, surprisingly, it has a lot more of the contemporary music that I listen to than I ever expected. Spotify in CD quality is a win for sure. |
Totally agree with the comments of Spotify having the superior curating algorithms from my experience with all of the streaming services - Amazon included. Per my spouse, Apple’s algorithms are also up there with Spotify’s. Also agree with the comment directly above that content is hugely important. The majority of my time is discovering music in comparison to critically listening. “Music first” is probably an appropriate hashtag that you could use here, especially if it’s true that 90% of the content is CD quality across all the currently major services (excluding Spotify and Apple for now). @hilde45 has a recent post inquiring about the evolution of streamers and whether it’s still a moving target. I don’t think it is. The quantity and quality of the music catalogues are there within the streaming services that our streamers are utilizing. Quality in terms of more than 10% of the content being in high resolution would be the logical next step IMO. Variability in how we interpret those high resolution offerings will be for us to decide - I agree that Tidal boosts the tremble and bass in comparison to other providers. To tie everything together, Spotify’s - and perhaps even Apple’s future plans - commitment to better quality is a win for us even if it’s just CD quality for now. This is even more true if we believe competition is healthy for consumers. |
I'm most curious at to what platforms and what the requirements need to be met from those platforms to accommodate Spotify HIFI, will those platforms be proprietary, what it will actually offer, where it will be available, when it will be available, what the costs will be, how user friendly it will be, and how bug free and reliable it will be? Until we know all that, it's still mostly vaporware. These things seem to be announced prematurely in order to build anticipation, followed by many delays, and glitches. Wake me up when there is something more concrete to consider. |
Great video by JD...I didn’t realize the high Rez only account for 10% catalog on Tidal / Qobuz. Majority of my favorite content is available in high Rez :-) https://youtu.be/eKyz1Y8K_Ys |
In looking forward. Hope my lossless Spotify song downloader can also work with Spotify HiFi, helping me to download music from Spotify HiFi for offline listening without limitation. |
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I’m paying close attention, I don’t know if I can continue to use Spotify Music Converter to get Spotify HiFi. |
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I’m really surprised it has taken soooo long for Spotify to do this. I had their premium service for a few years. Tremendous library,but in my opinion,the sound quality was lacking compared to Tidal and Qobuz. I now have Qobuz. I possibly could be lured back to Spotify if they could offer hi rez. Until then,I’m going to stick with what I have. |
Surprised as well that this hasn’t been implemented yet. Looking at this with a glass-half-full-approach in that they are refining out the quirks for a solid rollout. Somewhat like the Apple approach - not necessarily the first to release a new feature, but once they do it’s usually well implemented. Doesn’t seem like anyone knows when we’ll be able to experience this tier; my wild guess with absolutely no evidence is October. |
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@jjss49 , I go with the Andy Grove mantra, "only the paranoid survive". The barriers to entry to start a streaming service are severe. The barriers to a customer changing a streaming service are not. ATMOS and others technologies may also force their hand. |
Still waiting for Spotify, but saw the following from Reddit. Whether this is true, who knows, but I'll continue to be hopeful... Important to note that changing the quality of the music at any price point changes their deals with international publishing rights organizations and labels. This is a VERY long and intensive process (it’s what I do for a living at another smaller DSP) and while I was really hoping for HiFi this year, my best guess is that Apple / Tidal / Amazon’s new models really messed with the deals that they had in place in the sense that they no longer made financial sense. Likely that they had to go back and renegotiate all the deals based on whatever subscription fees they opted to change with regard to lossless since it affects their royalty payments. That being said, I think I have mentioned this before, I have SEEN Spotify HiFi in actual operation. Employees at the company have it enabled in beta and have for a long time. Which lends more to my theory that it’s not a technology / product issue and more of a finance / publishing issue. Food for thought. |
Based on the recent news from Spotify, it seems like a licensing issue. Based on this alone, my guess is 2 things will be cleared in 1 day: 1. Spotify HiFi 2. Tidal Desktop Connect control through mobile devices Why? Because Spotify already have Connect control for desktop, while Tidal already has hifi, but not Desktop Connect. It looks like with "Connect", there are some temporary file downloads that happen and I think when CD resolution files are downloaded, it becomes an issue with the content providers. Piracy most likely is the concern, because there are third party tools (I believe) that have capability to convert Tidal/Spotify songs to FLACs, etc.
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I had gotten this survey on Feb-11 this year and have screen shots that indicated $9.99/month for individual platinum plan and $25.99/month for platinum plan for 6-member family. The screen shots say that "platinum features included": Ad-free O&E podcasts Higher quality audio Sound optimization DJ tools Interactive singalong Listening statistics Looks like they cannot make the individual plan happen for $9.99/month and hence got someone to "leak" the "survey" to let other know that they are coming with $19.99/month plan. I am ready to pay $15.99/month. But anything above that is not competitive. |
Something I was thinking about this morning in regards to pricing: Spotify Platinum is rumored to be $20/individual with Hi-Fi being qualified as CD-quality. One could purchase a year’s subscription of Tidal through Best Buy for $10/month and then could purchase a year’s subscription of Roon for $10/month. This combination would yield higher resolution and likely better algorithms for suggested new tracks and artists for essentially the same price. Too early to tell, but IMO Spotify’s pricing doesn’t add up for me in comparison to the competition. |
In case anyone is interested The Verge released the following article a few hours ago, which is interesting and can be found here. Small excerpt: The Verge has recently learned that Spotify HiFi has been ready to go for more than a year. The technical work to bring the feature to market is largely complete, and the company has re-ingested its entire music catalog in lossless quality. Spotify employees have access to HiFi. But since it was originally intended to cost more than the standard plan (and thus boost Spotify’s average revenue per user), the launch was spoiled by Apple bundling lossless into Apple Music for free. If you read into Söderström’s answers, it’s clear that Spotify doesn’t intend to do the same. You can now expect HiFi to eventually appear as part of a more expensive plan — likely one that also includes spatial audio/Dolby Atmos and other perks related to audiobooks and podcasts. The when remains naturally unclear. "Educated" guess is 2028. And if I remember correctly, Spotify HiFi will be CD quality bit rate. |
CD quality? Wow, that’s great, ehem. Qobuz has been offering CD quality as its base resolution rate for years, and much of their content and almost all their new content is available in hi-res for about $13/month last I looked. Talk about behind the curve. Jeez. Enjoy waiting for Spotify to finally offer something that’s still not competitive.
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Very sad news. I had Spotify premium for a while. In my opinion, between Tidal,Qobuz,and Spotify, Spotify hands down has the superior library. They also have the best app out of the three. Unfortunately, the sound quality is the poorest. I currently have a subscription to Qobuz. I was actually looking forward to going back to Spotify when I heard they were going to offer HiFi. I guess their idea of HiFi and mine are different. |
spotify's continuing tease of a hifi tier is massively annoying and verges on securities manipulation. there are plenty of subscribers who would pay more for hifi even if competitors bundle it for free and/or have higher rez--spotify still has the best UI and catalog-- and it's a major misstep for them to be playing this game. |
@rocray @loomisjohnson agree that Spotify has the best UI and library in comparison to all the other streaming services. These two variables (library and UI) are important to my listening habits, which lean more towards music discovery than critical listening - still wish Spotify HiFi will be higher resolution than CD quality, though. In respect to Spotify and Roon - doubtful there would ever be a partnership, but I have seen rumblings about an Apple and Roon partnership. |
@toro3 the real solution for the apps is streaming via the upnp solutions like tidal connect or Spotify connect. (Aparently Qobuz coming soon). These solutions support high res as the streamer streams direct from the internet (network). Doing that lets the app makers have their app as the experience and not that of the streamer service or streamer company. This means someone like Qobuz who put effort around the music, with stories and other content, have another unique selling point. Unfortunately this is going to make something like Roon have a smaller market. A good thing is that streamers will be able to be judged on sound quality rather than the quality of the app and sound - to me a win win. to bring this all back to the thread I recently swapped for Spotify to get hires from Qobuz via my temporary streamer a WiiM mini. I also use Apple Music because I use it for my teenagers. sadly Spotify doesn’t seem to be focusing enough attention to music - the primary reason I dropped them was all the podcast crap complicating the app. The secondary reason was I wanted hi-res.
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@kiwiscott completely agree with everything you said. The Connect feature utilizing the network and bypassing Bluetooth (for example) while still allowing you to stay in your platform’s app (Tidal/Spotify) is handy and convenient. I also echo your sentiment towards the podcast on Spotify- it was literally like spam be plastered across the landing page. |
To those who care, news dropped this morning. Looking through some of the articles there were a few key points: - Internally named "Supremium." - Whether high-fidelity is beyond CD-quality is still a mystery (my bet is on CD-quality). - Most notably, plan will launch in non-US markets first and then in the US sometime in October, 2023. - Pricing unknown, but survey had been sent some time ago to users inquiring about a $19.99 platinum plan. Some of the few sources: https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/20/22746337/spotify-hifi-lossless-new-premium-tier-supremium
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