2 years after Spotify announced a new Hi-Fi audio service back in 2022, Spotify will introduce a new premium Hi-Fi subscription tier, Bloomberg reports.
Another interesting HI-FI audio tier is finally about to launch on Spotify. The service will be a more expansive add-on subscription with 'lossless' audio in CD quality as well as new playlist creation features.
What will this higher-priced premium plan offer?
Spotify is making an effort to become profitable and is trying to figure out how to extract more subscription fee from their users. In the past years, Spotify Premium prices for US users, rose from $10.99 to $11.99, the duo plan from $14.99 to $16.99, and the family plan from $16.99 to $19.99. Spotify prices vary depending on where you live on the planet. The plan will be an add on for existing premium tier, and will not be more expensive subscription tier. The most ardent users who choose to upgrade to this new audio tier will unlock new tools for managing song libraries, creating playlists, and, most importantly for music lovers, listening to high fidelity audio on the Spotify app. Many competing streaming services already offer a Hi-Fi HD listening service, including Amazon Music HD, TIDAL and Deezer. Apple Music (the main competitor of the Spotify app) launched Lossless Audio and Spatial Audio as a free service for existing users in May 2021. However, the new tier's pricing for Spotify will charge an additional $5 for existing customers who want to upgrade to this new premium plan. By introducing a higher subscription tier, the company could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue and become profitable. By the way, on the new plan, users can create playlists which will be played in HI-FI audio quality.
What is Spotify Hi-Fi?
It took Spotify almost two years to move forward with their announced plans for a Hi-Fi audio service in February 2022, during a Spotify Stream On special event, which included Billie Eillish and Finneas O'Connell discussing the importance of HI-FI audio for users. The company reported that "high-quality music streaming is consistently one of the most requested features by our users." While most users can remain on their existing Spotify plans, this tier could implement CD quality and Hi-Fi audio format with Spotify Connect-enabled speakers, meaning music lovers can experience public and private listening in HD quality. While the report stated that "Spotify HiFi will begin rolling out in select markets later this year" no definite rollout of this new premium plan has been revealed until this recent Bloomberg news. So what is 'HI-FI audio', and why should existing users pay more for it?
The difference between 'high resolution audio' and 'lossless audio'
Although it provides better sound quality, lossless audio is confusingly different from high-resolution audio. Interestingly, 'lossless' audio typically has a lower bitrate and sample rate than high-resolution audio, sitting at 16-bit/44.1 kHz. 'Hi res' audio is typically commercially available to stream or download at 24-bit/48 kHz or 96 kHz. You would think that a higher bitrate and sample rate would mean better quality: a higher bitrate facilitates a wider dynamic range, and a higher sample rate means greater bandwidth, which provides a more detailed sound quality.
So why is HI-FI audio desirable to listeners? It has to do with audio compression. Lossless files are less compressed than high-resolution audio files; highly compressed files require less internet bandwidth and storage space. However, the process of compression can often mean that not all of the original audio data is transferred, meaning you lose some of the original sound quality. Lossless files store audio data more efficiently as they are not trying to significantly reduce the file size, which results in preserving more of the original sound quality. This is why the term 'CD quality' is associated with high quality audio; uncompressed audio files are more exact reproductions of the original studio version.
A Future of Spotify Hi-Fi
By paying for a more expensive Spotify premium tier, listeners will be able to access more extensive audio files that preserve the original sound quality of a song. In an age in which analog is back, with a resurgence in vinyl and CD sales, we can see how this feature for the Spotify app is a profitable investment. In paying for Spotify Hi-Fi, listeners can trade smaller audio files for bigger lossless audio formats, which will enhance music to a professional audio standard and preserve CD quality. Since Bloomberg News has reported that this feature will be available 'later this year', music lovers wait in anticipation for this new feature.
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