News Spotify announce Hi-Fi service coming later this year

[Niallivm]

Just posted on WHF:

Spotify HiFi is official. Almost four years after it was first teased, a CD-quality tier is finally coming to the world's most popular streaming service, the green giant has revealed during its 'Stream On' online event today.

Spotify will join the likes of Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer and Amazon in offering lossless streaming "beginning later this year". Spotify is promising to share more details on Spotify HiFi soon, such as the all-important price, device compatibility, territories and launch dates.

CD-quality streams will be compatible with Spotify Connect, allowing Spotify HiFi subscribers to easily play high-quality streams between their phone (via the iOS and Android apps presumably) or, fingers crossed, their computer (via the desktop app or web player) and the mass of Spotify Connect-enabled speakers and devices on the market.

"We’re working with some of the world’s biggest speaker manufacturers to make Spotify HiFi accessible to as many fans as possible through Spotify Connect," reads Spotify's statement.

 

[RoA]

That all reads very familiar ... .

 

[Gray]

...was a long time coming.

 

[jjbomber]

...was a long time coming.

Though faster than Cr-Apple Music, who still won't go hi-fi. Strangely enough, WhatHiFi never say anything about that, but victimise Spotify relentlessly. I wonder why? 💰💰💰💰💰

 

[iMark]

That is very welcome development. We've been subscribing to Spotify Premium since 2008. Overall we're very happy with the service. We now have a Spotify Premium Family membership. An upgrade to even better sound quality would be even better. Hopefully The Netherlands is one of the countries where the rollout begins.

A couple of years ago we bought a Yamaha R-N602 which has integrated Spotify Connect. I hope this type of older equipment will be able cope with with higher quality streams. Maybe a firmware update could solve this. The Yamaha is capable of AirPlay lossless streaming.

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple were upgrading Apple Music to CD quality later in the year.

 

[DCarmi]

It will be interesting to see how many Spotify Premium users actually switch to Hifi. My suspicion is that many people who use the service over a mobile with 30 quid bluetooth headphones won 't pay the extra.

Would I be tempted? Not sure (and I have a fair amount of reasonable if not high end audio equipment).
For me Spotify is used for music discovery, background music and listening to when out and about (which I don't do much of at the moment!).

That said, there are a lot of Spotify users, so even a small percentage changing to the Hifi option will have a significant impact, both for Spotify and other service providers.

 

[Niallivm]

I can’t imagine Apple not reacting - premium priced headphones and speakers tied to the lowest bitrate music streaming service?

 

[RoA]

It will be interesting to see how many Spotify Premium users actually switch to Hifi. My suspicion is that many people who use the service over a mobile with 30 quid bluetooth headphones won 't pay the extra.

Would I be tempted? Not sure (and I have a fair amount of reasonable if not high end audio equipment).
For me Spotify is used for music discovery, background music and listening to when out and about (which I don't do much of at the moment!).

That said, there are a lot of Spotify users, so even a small percentage changing to the Hifi option will have a significant impact, both for Spotify and other service providers.

I use Tidal Hifi and Quobuz Hi Res and switch between the two . I find Quobuz can sound better depending on the recording but much prefer Tidal's interface.

Years ago, before the above two, I used Spotify and the interface was very good but the low fi quality eventually made me switch.

If Spotify Hifi really comes off ... we've been hearing about it for years ... I will give it a go and see. I am not loyal to any one service.

 

[jjbomber]

It will be interesting to see how many Spotify Premium users actually switch to Hifi. My suspicion is that many people who use the service over a mobile with 30 quid bluetooth headphones won't pay the extra.

There's a lot more to the story than was put on here. Spotify are expanding into an extra 85 countries, mainly Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, an extra 1 billion potential customers. It already has 345 million active subscribers. It is also expanding into Audiobooks, as well as more podcasts to add to the existing 2.2 million available. It has signed up with Warner Brothers for fresh content. It's not all good news; they've signed up Meghan and Harry! And Obama!

 

[Terry Webb]

I have been looking forward to a Spotify HIFi tier for long time. Almost gave up the ghost. Quite happy with CD quality. Allied with a decent DAC it should make for a great listen.