Spotify HiFi

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.

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.

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.

Platinum plan with HiFi @ $20/month to possibly be released within the next month? I’m not holding my breath, but interesting nonetheless.

 

The monthly definitely seems high. I’d be curious what the “playlist pro” consists of, though.

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.

@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.

@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.tomsguide.com/news/spotify-hifi-is-still-coming-but-spotify-supremium-sounds-like-a-bummer

https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/20/22746337/spotify-hifi-lossless-new-premium-tier-supremium