Spotify may finally join Apple Music's lossless audio party two years late

AppleInsider

Spotify's HiFi service is still being worked on, with the chronically-late lossless music streaming plan set to launch later in 2023, but not in the United States at first.

Spotify logo

Originally floated in February 2021, Spotify's HiFi plan hoped to offer the same sort of lossless audio that Apple Music provides to subscribers. While it has yet to actually become available to subscribers of Spotify, the company hasn't given up on the plan at all.

Spotify is believed to be preparing to launch its new plan, internally known as "Supremium," complete with its lossless audio service within months. Bloomberg reports people familiar with the plan saying it will be the most expensive offering from the streamer to date, beyond the existing $9.99-per-month cost.

Back in October 2022, a Reddit posting claimed a survey for Spotify mentioned a Platinum account for $19.99, which included Hi-Fi audio and a number of other features. While it may not necessarily cost nigh $20 for users, it could be a fair amount higher than the standard charge.

It is thought that Spotify will initially bring out the HiFi service to select non-US territories before moving to a US launch in October, if the initial launches go well.

The revival of the plan is apparently an attempt by Spotify to increase revenue, while at the same time appeasing investors who want the company to increase its prices overall.

In April, it was reported that Spotify enjoyed 515 million active monthly users, a 22% year-on-year increase that outperformed projections. While the number of subscribers rose to 210 million, Spotify still posted a first-quarter loss of around $248 million.

This is not the first time that Spotify HiFi has surfaced in 2023. In an interview in March, co-president Gustav Soderstrom insisted that the service was announced but "then the industry changed for a bunch of reasons."

Spotify was still to do it, but "we're going to do it in a way where it makes sense for us and for our listeners. The industry changed and we had to adapt," Soderstrom continued, though he didn't go into detail as to what changed.

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J0na17anT98

Par for the course with Spotify…

ITGUYINSD

I think it's a relatively small slice of the Spotify pie that have the equipment to reproduce lossless music correctly (let alone the environment to listen to it without distractions).
It's nice that Apple includes it without charging extra, but not sure I would pay extra to have it.  Since most people don't have a clue and just want the best music (regardless of the fact their AirPods can't reproduce it) many will pay for it not realizing they're not hearing what they're paying for.

kmarei

lossless is useles on iphones unless you have a 3.5mm out
because the bluetooth codecs supported on iphones do not support high res audio
so whats the point?
no LDAC, no aptX HD etc
maybe if you use carplay it might work, but for airpods etc, no point really

nimbuschild

Well, we shall see. I think there are people who will be willing to get such a subscription, even though it promises to be quite expensive. I'm not into this audiophile stuff that much though, so it's not for me 

macxpress

Spotify is scraping for money...their business model isn't cutting it with loss after loss. I don't see customers who prefer Spotify willing to pay for lossless music as an extra cost when I think the majority if its customer base uses the free tier model anyways. 

newlionmx

With Apple Music and Deezer being the same price, it is hard to believe that Spotify will charge the same. A lot of the Spotify users that I know don't care for quality as they listen to music on their phone's speakers or cheap bluetooth speakers so they don't know what they are missing out on. I've had audio tests with people and will play the same song on Spotify and Apple Music and they are blown away, but what keeps them with Spotify is that their playlists are better. So no matter how much better the audio quality and experience is with Apple Music and Deezer, Spotify users won't really jump ship since they care more for the social aspect of their music experience. 

DasPike

kmarei said:

lossless is useles on iphones unless you have a 3.5mm out
because the bluetooth codecs supported on iphones do not support high res audio
so whats the point?
no LDAC, no aptX HD etc
maybe if you use carplay it might work, but for airpods etc, no point really

Not everyone uses an iPhone as their primary streaming device.

thedba

kmarei said:

lossless is useles on iphones unless you have a 3.5mm out
because the bluetooth codecs supported on iphones do not support high res audio
so whats the point?
no LDAC, no aptX HD etc
maybe if you use carplay it might work, but for airpods etc, no point really

There is a portion of the population, let’s call them the less than 1%, that buy Lightning to USB dongles and then plug into that a portable DAC, in order to plug in their HiFi wired headphones for lossless listening.

Many of them also have Macs connected to an external DAC and to their sound system.

kmarei

thedba said:

kmarei said:

lossless is useles on iphones unless you have a 3.5mm out
because the bluetooth codecs supported on iphones do not support high res audio
so whats the point?
no LDAC, no aptX HD etc
maybe if you use carplay it might work, but for airpods etc, no point really

There is a portion of the population, let’s call them the less than 1%, that buy Lightning to USB dongles and then plug into that a portable DAC, in order to plug in their HiFi wired headphones for lossless listening.

Many of them also have Macs connected to an external DAC and to their sound system.

Valid point, actually my brother does exactly that
i just wish apple made decent headphones that support some of the higher resolution codecs
i've tried a soundcore headphone using aptx HD I think, on an android, and it certainly sounds better 
why the insistence on using sub par codecs on apples part?
you support lossless great, but what's the point if you don't sell headphones that support this level of quality ?

spheric

kmarei said:

thedba said:

kmarei said:

lossless is useles on iphones unless you have a 3.5mm out
because the bluetooth codecs supported on iphones do not support high res audio
so whats the point?
no LDAC, no aptX HD etc
maybe if you use carplay it might work, but for airpods etc, no point really

There is a portion of the population, let’s call them the less than 1%, that buy Lightning to USB dongles and then plug into that a portable DAC, in order to plug in their HiFi wired headphones for lossless listening.

Many of them also have Macs connected to an external DAC and to their sound system.

Valid point, actually my brother does exactly that
i just wish apple made decent headphones that support some of the higher resolution codecs
i've tried a soundcore headphone using aptx HD I think, on an android, and it certainly sounds better 
why the insistence on using sub par codecs on apples part?
you support lossless great, but what's the point if you don't sell headphones that support this level of quality ?

Supporting streaming of a format you already have (all uploads to Apple Music are lossless audio to begin with) is a very, very different calculation than developing, building and shipping hardware — to compete within the comparatively tiny hi-end market. Also, lossless audio works on hundreds of millions of stationary hi-end hi-fi systems that Apple probably has no intention of competing with.  

You might as well ask why Apple added cycling directions to Maps, when they don't sell bicycles that support the feature.