Apple Music’s got it,Tidal’s got it, Amazon Music’s got it, so where’s Spotify’slossless audiooption?
In February 2021,Spotify announcedthat it was planning to launch a Hi-Fi subscription tier where users can enjoy CD-quality, lossless audio. It was supposed to launch later in 2021, which would’ve been more timely to compete with otherstreaming platformsthat already have lossless audio as an option.
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But now, three years later, there’s a lot of uncertainty on when Spotify Hi-Fi will launch, if ever. So if you’re wondering what Spotify Hi-Fi even is, when you will be able to use it, and what you’re able to do instead of waiting for it, here’s everything you need to know.
The state of lossless audio on Spotify
The whole ethos of Spotify Hi-Fi is providing a lossless audio option forSpotifyusers. This would allow users to pay more to choose when they want to listen to lossless tracks, since it’s planned as a different tier of Spotify subscription from the regular Premium subscription. Since it’s going to be pricier, it will probably include more than just CD-quality audio to make it more worth it compared to other streaming platforms, but more on that later.
CD-quality or lossless audio here refers to music files with a bitrate of 1411kbps (16bit/44.1kHz), which is the quality of the music you would get on a physical CD. Currently, Spotify streams music at a maximum quality/bitrate of 320kbps, which is the equivalent of a high quality MP3 file (though Spotify uses the Ogg Vorbis codec instead of MP3).
The “Music Pro” feature seems to include not only lossless audio, but also aDJ remix featurethat would allow users to slow down and speed up music.
The latest information we have on Spotify’s lossless audio as of April 2024 comes fromThe Verge, which reported on April 12 that a Reddit user found code snippets in Spotify for Android that point to a new add-on feature called “Music Pro.” The “Music Pro” feature seems to include not only lossless audio, but also aDJ remix featurethat would allow users to slow down and speed up music.
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When Spotify will launch lossless audio, if ever
Since Spotify announced that Spotify Hi-Fi would launch back in 2021, all we’ve really been able to do is speculate on when it’s actually coming. First it was supposed to arrive “later” that year, and then it never came. Next, there was a forum post from a Spotify moderator inJanuary 2022who said it would be coming “in the future.” Later in 2022,TechCrunch reportedthat Spotify’s CEO indicated that licensing issues were causing delays in Hi-Fi’s launch. Even with the new information from The Verge about “Music Pro,” there’s no indication of when the feature will launch, but it does seem to be coming somewhere down the pipeline.
Then, in March 2023, Spotify’s co-president toldThe Vergethat Hi-Fi would still be coming in the future, but wouldn’t say when. The Verge in that same article stated that they learned that Hi-Fi was already mostly complete, but Spotify was facing issues with regard to pricing.
Spotify Hi-Fi could cost more than other streaming platforms
But if lossless launches with “Music Pro” as mentioned earlier, it might not even be a fully different tier, but just as an add-on.
In September 2023,The Vergereported that a Redditor looked at Spotify’s code and found a “Supremium” tier that would cost $19.99, and include features like advanced sorting options and mixing tools, as well as 30 hours of audiobook listening monthly.
This price is pretty hefty compared to other streaming platforms. Apple Music offers lossless audio as part of its regular subscription for $10.99, and Amazon Music does as well for $9.99. So if Spotify is going to ask users to pay that much more for lossless, it would make sense if it includes other features like those mentioned above, as well as others like Spatial Audio or Dolby Atmos support.
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Alternatives to Spotify Hi-Fi
If you don’t want to wait longer for Spotify to drop the Hi-Fi tier, you have lots of other options for lossless audio, whether you want to stream it or buy it.
Other popular streaming platforms like Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon Music all have lossless audio in their catalogs already, so you can start listening to high quality music immediately if you wish. Other streaming options include Qobuz and Deezer, which both allow you to stream music in FLAC format. If you’d prefer to switch to buying music rather than streaming, you can also buy music straight from artists on Qobuz and Bandcamp. You can also go the classic route and buy physical CDs from your favorite artists.
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For now, Spotify Hi-Fi seems to be indefinitely delayed, but hopefully, at some point it’ll be an option that Spotify users can make full use of. For now, it may seem like an elusive promise with seemingly endless waiting, but that’s just how it is sometimes in the tech world.
