Spotify's HiFi tier could finally be about to launch

Did Spotify have different issues than Tidal, Qobuz, Apple and Amazon, all of whom offer higher resolution than what Spotify had been offering?

@mahler123 nothing official from what I’ve read but there were rumors that track with milpai’s comments. I posted the following way back in 2021:

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.

Nothing yet for me. Peeving me off a bit after waiting this long! Lol

@mofojo ,

No one in my family, friend circle or colleagues have got it yet. Not sure how I got it. Not complaining, but encouraging that you be patient. You will love it once you hear it. We all waited for a few years; few days will just pass by.

I have lossless, but you should be aware that it's not available in the web browser version of Spotify; it's only on the desktop app or phone app.

Unfortunately, it came right as my system -- along with everything else I own -- is packed up for an international move. So I can't really evaluate the quality vs. Qobuz at the moment 

That said, even if it's equal to Qobuz, I'd still not switch, owing to the fact that Qobuz pays artists more than 10x what Spotify pays.