In 2021, Spotify announced a new HiFi subscription tier for higher quality sound – one of the most requested features by customers. However, the feature has been delayed indefinitely.
After years of little news, rumors are surfacing about the new plan. According to Bloomberg, it will launch later this year. This would be an add-on for existing users and would cost about $5 extra per month for improved audio, as well as new tools and features for creating playlists and managing libraries.
Spotify recently raised its prices in the US and UK, a typical move for streaming services before introducing a shake-up of plans or a big new feature that we’ve seen at Max, Disney+ and Netflix.
This means users with a Spotify Premium subscription with the lossless audio add-on will pay £16.99/$16.99 per month. This is more expensive than other competitors such as Deezer and Tidal, which cost £11.99/$11.99 and £10.99/$10.99 respectively.
We don’t yet know if this add-on will be available to users of the ad-supported Spotify free plan.
The original announcement claimed that “Premium subscribers in select markets will be able to improve their sound quality”, although we assume this will start in major countries like the UK and US.
Spotify HiFi is long overdue, as many other competing music streaming services offer an equivalent subscription tier, including Tidal, Amazon Music, Qobuz and Deezer. In fact, some go beyond CD quality (16-bit/44kHz) with high resolution up to 24-bit/192kHz.
Previously, Spotify’s highest quality was 320kbps compressed through the Premium subscription, but HiFi would bring things up to a CD-quality lossless audio format available on your “Spotify Connect-enabled device and speakers.”
It remains to be seen which speakers will support Spotify HiFi, but the company said in 2021 that it was “working with some of the world’s biggest speaker manufacturers to make Spotify HiFi accessible to as many fans as possible through Spotify Connect “.
“High quality sound means more information, there are things you won’t hear if you don’t have a good sound system. It’s really important because we make music that [we] I want to be heard the way this was done,” Billie Eilish said during the original announcement.
