Spotify HiFi could finally make me pay for lossless music streaming

Spotify HiFi could finally make me pay for lossless music streaming — here'due south why

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Spotify HiFi is coming. That ways one of the 2 biggest music streaming services on the planet — too slow, Apple tree Music — will soon offer songs in a CD-quality, lossless format that simply sounds improve.

You'll have to pay extra for it, of class, merely lossless streaming has long been one of the near frequent requests from Spotify Premium users. Now that it's finally confirmed, Spotify HiFi has the potential to not simply sate the appetites of true enthusiasts, but too concenter a new wave of Hard disk drive audio subscribers. This, in all likelihood, will include myself.

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The fact that I don't subscribe to whatsoever lossless streaming service (such every bit Tidal HiFi or Amazon Music Hd) for personal use might have some demanding I hand in my sound editor badge and gun.

Merely while I practise care about sound quality, these services take still to convince me to brand the jump. Their interfaces are unfamiliar, their libraries rarely include artists I tin can't hear on other services and their low uptake among my friends means I tin't share songs and playlists as widely as I tin can with a elementary Spotify link.

Spotify HiFi could change that, and non just for me. Most pricing and hardware compatibility details are unannounced, so you lot'll accept to forgive some wishful thinking here, but there's a good take chances that this is what makes lossless streaming large. And a flake more than worthy of the extra cash.

It's Spotify, but as we know it

First off, don't underestimate the ability of Spotify every bit a brand. It wields a Premium subscriber base of operations of at least 155 million people, with many millions more than listening for free with ads.

While just a portion might be willing to pay extra for lossless streaming, information technology'southward likely that brand loyalty will translate into far more Spotify HiFi subscribers than Tidal HiFi or even Amazon Music HD currently have on the books. And in turn, that means I'll more likely be able to keep using the social sharing features that Spotify already has built-in. I don't want to sound like I'm saying "I'll become information technology if my friends go information technology," except that's pretty much what I am saying.

More fundamentally, I suspect existing users' familiarity with Spotify (compared to rival services) will be a driving force in the HiFi tier's potential success. Spotify made a betoken in its Spotfy HiFi announcement blog post that the new service would "be coupled with Spotify's seamless user experience, building on our commitment to make certain users tin can heed to the music they beloved in the way they want to savour it."

Likewise the basics, like a UI and features consistent with the costless and Premium tiers, this could likewise hateful that Spotify HiFi could deport over the data it already has on users to make song and playlist recommendations.

As creepy as some find the utilize of algorithms, I experience Spotify has a pretty decent grasp on what I like — and if I'thousand going to buy into a lossless service I'd rather proceed that convenience than have to commencement over elsewhere.

Adding to the drove

Spotify HiFi could besides play a part in addressing a problem of Hi-Res streaming in its electric current class: the limited range of songs. Co-ordinate to analysts FutureSource, Howdy-Res Audio accounts for less than 3 one thousand thousand songs available to stream, compared to the lxx million-plus songs that can exist streamed in other formats.

Spotify HiFi apparently won't apply 24-flake audio required for "truthful" Hullo-Res classification, but the upside is that — in theory — it tin can offer its entire music library in higher quality, immediately from launch.

For now, Spotify hasn't said how big its HiFi library will be at launch, but for a streaming service of this magnitude there's no style it starts off small — and it will only grow with time.

Absolutely at that place are other, rather pregnant unknowns. Pricing will exist a large cistron: Spotify could still hobble itself by asking too much, and should arguably aim to match Amazon Music HD'Due south $15 monthly subscription price rather than Tidal HiFi's $twenty. A Spotify Premium subscription is $ten per month, and so $v actress for an audio quality upgrade sounds reasonable.

Research by FutureSource found that 40% of streaming service users desire higher sound quality, and more than half are willing to pay an extra $3 to get it. So there's definitely some need from users that isn't currently existence met past Spotify'south lossless rivals — it could all come up downward to whether the price is right.

I, for 1, am looking forward to hearing more. Opening Spotify is something of a forenoon ritual of mine, so I'd prefer a lossless service with the same features and interface.

And, while I'm not averse to smartphone speakers if cipher else is to hand, I'm satisfied I have the audio hardware that could do lossless music justice. All I've actually been waiting for is a service I actually want to use — and Spotify HiFi could at last be it.

More: Spotify vs. Apple Music: Which is improve?

James is currently Hardware Editor at Stone Paper Shotgun, just before that was Sound Editor at Tom'due south Guide, where he covered headphones, speakers, soundbars and annihilation else that intentionally makes dissonance. A PC enthusiast, he besides wrote computing and gaming news for TG, usually relating to how hard information technology is to find graphics menu stock.