Spotify HiFi release date: When is Spotify’s lossless tier coming?

Back again in February 2021, Spotify created a daring assure to roll out lossless songs streaming ahead of the 12 months was out. Quick ahead a lot more than a year afterwards, and there’s continue to no indication of Spotify HiFi.
So, what is the deal? Spotify has been frustratingly restricted-lipped about the fate of Spotify HiFi, but the business has allow slip a couple of information about the missing support. Meanwhile, the latest rumors suggests that Spotify HiFi may well still see the light-weight of day, and potentially quickly.
Here’s what we know–and really don’t know–about when Spotify HiFi could last but not least get there.
What is Spotify HiFi?
Very first announced again in February 2021, Spotify HiFi was described as a way for Spotify Top quality end users to “upgrade their sound quality” to a “CD-good quality, lossless audio format.”
Commonly, “CD-quality” means streaming audio encoded with 16-little bit depth and a 44.1kHz sampling fee.
But the important expression in this article is “lossless,” which indicates that the audio stream has exactly the exact same sonic depth as its source.
The primary promoting point here is that you’d be hearing the new music in the exact way the artist intended–and certainly, Spotify posted a video in which Billie Eilish and Finneas extolled the virtues of lossless audio streaming.
As it stands, Spotify streams audio at 320Kbps in the “lossy” Ogg Vorbis structure, which indicates the audio stream has been compressed and is getting rid of a honest quantity of element in the interest of conserving bandwidth.
When will Spotify HiFi come out?
The brief answer is that we really don’t know when Spotify HiFi will arrive. Nevertheless, some current chatter implies it may land soon.
According to a publish on Reddit, a longtime Spotify person who had lately switched to Apple Music claimed they received a survey detailed a new plan–“Spotify Platinum”–that boasts HiFi, as very well as other options these as “Studio Audio,” a “Headphone Tuner,” “Audio Insights,” “Library Pro,” “Playlist Pro,” and “limited-ad” podcasts, all for an more charge (a lot more on that in a second).
The Redditor claimed the survey asked if they would swap again to Spotify “in the nest 30 days” for “one of [those] functions.”
Interesting stuff–if it is genuine.
There have been other, former hints that Spotify HiFi is nevertheless percolating, together with a “HiFi” icon spotted in the Spotify app again in May possibly 2021 and a leaked “Hi, HiFi” video that designed the rounds a number of months afterwards.
Next months of silence about the situation, Spotify lastly did communicate up about Spotify HiFi at the beginning of 2022, but the vaguely worded assertion available scant aspects:
We know that HiFi quality audio is essential to you. We feel the same, and we’re excited to produce a Spotify HiFi experience to Premium users in the future. But we do not have timing aspects to share nevertheless. We will of study course update you listed here when we can.
We attained out to Spotify soon following that announcement, but a rep would only say that the organization did “not have something further to share on HiFi past the enjoyment for the long run start.”
Far more recently, Spotify HiFi went unmentioned through the streamer’s next-quarter earnings call in late July.
We’ve considering the fact that despatched observe-up inquiries, and we’ll update this tale when and if we listen to back.
We’ll also retain our ears peeled throughout Spotify’s upcoming quarterly earnings contact, slated for October 25.
How considerably will Spotify HiFi cost?
Once more, we don’t know for confident, but in accordance to the “Spotify Platinum” rumor in depth earlier mentioned, the purported study pegged the selling price at $19.99 a thirty day period, or double the $9.99/month Spotify Person system. Ouch.
Although Spotify has never ever occur out and stated that HiFi would price tag more, the wording of its initial announcement–“Premium subscribers in select markets will be capable to improve their sound high quality to Spotify HiFi”–suggests that HiFi is both an incorporate-on or bundled in a new program, such as the feasible Spotify Platinum tier.
It is also worthy of noting that Spotify tested CD-high-quality audio streams as early as 2017, and at that time, it charged an excess $7.50 a thirty day period for the privilege.
When was Spotify HiFi supposed to occur out?
Spotify in no way gave a precise launch date for Spotify HiFi, but for the duration of its 2021 announcement, it said the feature would get there “later this year” in “select” marketplaces.
Of study course, it’s honest to say that Spotify HiFi skipped its launch window by a quite big margin.
Why hasn’t Spotify HiFi occur out however?
Good dilemma. Back in February, Spotify CEO Daniel Ed blamed “licensing” challenges when asked about the fate of Spotify HiFi during a corporation earnings connect with. Here’s the exact estimate, as noted by TechCrunch:
“Many of the capabilities that we speak about and primarily that’s related to songs ends up into licensing,” Ek explained to buyers. “So I simply cannot really announce any details on this other than to say that we’re in frequent dialogue with our associates to deliver this to marketplace.”
There is yet another rationale that Spotify may possibly have delayed Spotify HiFi: simply because it obtained caught flat-footed by Apple and Amazon.
Just 3 months immediately after the Spotify HiFi announcement, Amazon and Apple both equally declared (separately, but on the similar working day) that they would get started presenting lossless, high-resolution, and spatial audio songs tracks, all for no additional demand. (Apple was completely new to lossless and spatial audio streaming, even though Amazon had previously been charging more for lossless and spatial tracks.)
Pursuing the Amazon and Apple bulletins, the prospect of having to pay extra (most most likely) for only CD-quality songs and (possibly) no spatial audio began to drop its luster, so maybe Spotify selected to retreat and regroup.
Will Spotify HiFi give significant-resolution tunes streaming?
Plenty of Spotify’s streaming new music rivals, which includes Amazon Audio Endless, Apple Music, Qobuz, and Tidal, give “high-resolution” audio streaming–that is, audio that is encoded at a bigger resolution and sampling rate than CD-high-quality 16-bit/44.1kHz audio tracks.
Most business varieties concur that 24-little bit/48kHz is the threshold for large-resolution audio, and these streamers that aid it deliver high-res streams all the way up to 24-bit/192kHz.
But Spotify by no means said something about substantial-resolution audio in its original Spotify HiFi announcement all it promised was “CD-quality” audio, which qualifies as “hi-fi” but not “hi-res.”
As for the “Spotify Platinum” rumors, the purported survey can make mention of a “Studio Sound” element in addition to HiFi. Could “Studio Sound” indicate hi-res songs? Hmmm.
In any party, it is a subject of heated discussion regardless of whether the human ear can actually inform the big difference amongst CD-quality and substantial-resolution audio–or for that make any difference, irrespective of whether most people can discern the big difference among lossy and lossless. We will not dive into lossy-vs.-lossless rabbit hole listed here.
Will Spotify HiFi offer spatial audio?
As with large-resolution audio, Spotify under no circumstances mentioned something about spatial audio–that is, songs tracks that have been mixed with 3D surround effects–in its Spotify HiFi announcement.
Meanwhile, Spotify competitors Amazon Audio, Apple Music, and Tidal do present spatial audio tracks in this kind of formats as Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio.
All over again, Spotify may possibly essentially have spatial audio programs in the works–and perhaps that’s what the “Studio Sound” and/or “Headphone Tuner” functions from the Spotify Platinum rumors are all about.
Will Spotify HiFi get cancelled?
Properly, anything’s feasible, and Spotify has been known to nix higher-profile capabilities that in no way fairly took off.
For example, Spotify not too long ago pulled the plug on Automobile Point, a tiny touchscreen screen that you could set up on a car or truck dashboard for on-the-street Spotify streaming.
For its aspect, Spotify stated that whilst Auto Detail “worked as intended,” it chose to halt manufacturing of the $80 gadget thanks to “product demand and supply chain problems,” between other factors.
Spotify also has a history of screening, teasing, and rolling out new features that later disappear–or even reappear–without explanation.
But whilst Spotify appears to be ready to cancel features that aren’t performing, it also likes to experiment, and Spotify HiFi could be a project that Spotify is content material to tinker with indefinitely.
For what it’s value, the official Spotify HiFi announcement is continue to are living on Spotify’s website.
Updated on Oct 14, 2022 to insert new developments and assessment.