On Feb. 22, Spotify announced that it will launch a new high quality streaming tier later this year called ‘Spotify HiFi.’ The new subscription will offer CD-quality audio, meaning it will have lossless compression. It will be available in select markets to start.
The company stated that HiFi would be an add-on to its Premium subscription tier, which runs at $10 per month. With equivalent high quality streaming service tiers, such as Tidal’s high fidelity premium tier, costing around $20 per month, it is likely that the ‘Spotify HiFi’ add on will come out to an additional $10 on top of the initial premium payment.
“Artists and fans have told us that sound quality is important to them. We agree, and that’s why today at Stream On we announced Spotify HiFi,” wrote the company in a post on their website. “Beginning later this year, Premium subscribers in select markets will be able to upgrade their sound quality to Spotify HiFi and listen to their favorite songs the way artists intended.”
For more information from Spotify, click here.
5 Comments comments associated with this post
David
February 24, 2021 at 3:16 pmThe only lossless is analog pressed vinyl. If you are playing spotify on an iphone with earbuds, sonos with their speakers, or other low quality sound delivery syestems, you won’t notice the difference.
Paul
February 23, 2021 at 10:35 pmCD quality is lossy now since most all music is recorded in 24-bit.
right
February 24, 2021 at 11:51 amMy thoughts exactly, very odd to have a “CD quality” reference. Maybe they are going after old farts who still have a bias against digital from those early low bit-rate mP3’s…
Bbqsundays
February 23, 2021 at 8:10 pmIt’s like Netflix.. eventually they figure out a way to raise the price a couple bones every few years
Bill Hrdina
February 23, 2021 at 3:40 pmThat last sentence is kind of amazing: Premium subscribers will be able to upgrade their sound quality…and LISTEN TO THEIR FAVORITE SONGS THE WAY ARTISTS INTENDED (emphasis mine).
It’s a music player I’m already paying for, how else would I want to listen?
I’m kind of fascinated by the idea that presenting music, on a music service, the way it is supposed to be presented, costs extra. We have a very strange culture.