Spotify HiFi has been ready and waiting in the wings for over a year ago, but Apple rained...

Shawn Knight

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What just happened? Spotify has been working on a HiFi tier for years. Launch windows have come and gone with no explanation. What's really going on behind the scenes? In a recent interview with The Verge, Spotify co-president Gustav Söderström provided a bit of clarity.

Söderström said a lossless experience is still on the way. "We announced it, but then the industry changed for a bunch of reasons," the executive noted, adding that they are still going to roll it out but will do so in a way that makes sense for them and their listeners.

"The industry changed and we had to adapt" Söderström said.

The publication pressed Söderström for details about the aforementioned industry changes but he refused to comment on what other players in the industry have done lately.

According to The Verge's sources, Spotify HiFi has been ready and waiting in the staging lanes for over a year. All of the technical details have been ironed out and Spotify's entire catalog has been converted to lossless. Spotify employees even reportedly have access to HiFi, and the company even said in early 2021 that the service would launch later that year.

Spotify originally planned to offer HiFi as a more expensive tier but Apple threw a monkey wrench into the mix when it started offering lossless to Apple Music subscribers in the summer of 2021. Amazon's highest tier is also available to Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers with no added cost.

Reading between the lines, it seems clear that Spotify still intends to charge a premium for HiFi (otherwise, it would have been launched already). Perhaps they will bundle it with additional features like spatial audio / Dolby Atmos or mix in some podcast or audiobook extras to make it more compelling. But with competing services now offering lossless at no extra charge, Spotify seemingly knows it can't ask customers to pay more for better quality when rivals aren't.

The big question at this point still remains: when will Spotify launch HiFi? Söderström would not say, only noting that it is coming at some point.

Image credit: Headphones by Lee Campbell, Mixer by Drew Patrick Miller

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Most people don't have a system good enough to hear the difference. Those who do, probably only use it occasionally because most people listen more in the car or on bluetooth. It doesn't really make sense to pay extra for something you only use occasionally, that is only very slightly better anyway. Audiophiles are already using Qobuz for better than lossless and that market is pretty much already taken. For everyone else, there is no reason to pay extra.
 
Spatial Audio / Dolby Atmos is already available on Apple Music for no extra charge as well. I moved to Apple Music because it came bundled with my sim only plan at no extra charge, so I cancelled my Spotify and saved myself £10 a month. Turns out the Apple Music app on Android is pretty good as well.

Apple then rolled out the lossless and Atmos audio, I have the Sony XM4's and while I don't like listening to all my music in spatial audio, some of it is truly impressive. I was working in a datacenter, installing servers, wiring everything up, someone approached me to walk past and I've never jumped so high, usually I'm fairly aware of my surroundings but man, the "audio from all directions" really messes with your sense of where you actually are, quite impressive.

The lossless audio part, it really depends on what sound system I'm using, through the XM4's, can't really tell the difference.
Through my Audioengine HD6's hooked up to a Creative sound card in my PC, I can hear the difference, it's subtle and depends on the track if I'm being honest. Some "nosier" or "heavier" tracks are noticeably clearer, some particularly slow and soft tracks benefit from an element of refinement on tricky instrumental pieces.
Through my Yamaha receiver hooked up to a load of Tannoy speakers, also can't really tell the difference between highest quality and lossless.

I actually ran into issues with lossless at first, car bluetooth would be mega quiet and everything at full blast was a quarter of the volume it used to be at half volume, Bluetooth speaker had a similar issue. Apple appear to have worked out the kinks now though.

Takes up quite a sizable space on your phone as well, each track is anywhere from 18MB to 50+MB. I have less than 200 tracks downloaded and I'm using 9.26GB of space.
 
Most people don't have a system good enough to hear the difference. Those who do, probably only use it occasionally because most people listen more in the car or on bluetooth. It doesn't really make sense to pay extra for something you only use occasionally, that is only very slightly better anyway. Audiophiles are already using Qobuz for better than lossless and that market is pretty much already taken. For everyone else, there is no reason to pay extra.

You do not hear a difference because there is no "audible" difference

The problem with "lossless" as described here is that it is not lossless

Converting an uncompressed .wav file from 24 bit / 192Khz to another 24 bit / 192Khz uncompressed .wav file is not a lossless conversion

Converting from 192Khz to 352Khz is even worse because the new sampling rate is not a direct multiple of the original

QUOTE:
"Spotify's entire catalog has been converted to lossless."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

You cannot "CONVERT" to "LOSSLESS"

LOSSLESS is an original audio file in uncompressed format that is not CONVERTED to any other format, even if it is the same sampling rate

The only way to maintain LOSSLESS is to keep it EXACTLY the same (bit for bit) as the original

You may COPY Lossless, but you cannot convert it

It doesn't work that way and it is not lossless

An excellent quality lossless stereo file WILL lose spacial information and not sound as good as the original when converted to a new sampling rate that is not a direct multiple of the original

However, if you play the original lossless file using a computers clock over optical spdif output, it will sound a bad a converted file

Playback over USB audio class 2 to a high quality DAC will sound better that USB audio class 1 from an optical port "IF" and "ONLY IF" the original file is a great quality recording that remained lossless from start to finish
 
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QUOTE:
"Spotify's entire catalog has been converted to lossless."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

You cannot "CONVERT" to "LOSSLESS"
I can only assume something was lost in translation or worded badly. I would hazard a guess that Spotify got the original lossless audio directly from their various sources.

If all they did was convert 320Kbps MP3's to whatever lossless format they want to use, they will get found out pretty quickly.
 
You do not hear a difference because there is no "audible" difference

The problem with "lossless" as described here is that it is not lossless

Converting an uncompressed .wav file from 24 bit / 192Khz to another 24 bit / 192Khz uncompressed .wav file is not a lossless conversion

Converting from 192Khz to 352Khz is even worse because the new sampling rate is not a direct multiple of the original

QUOTE:
"Spotify's entire catalog has been converted to lossless."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

You cannot "CONVERT" to "LOSSLESS"

LOSSLESS is an original audio file in uncompressed format that is not CONVERTED to any other format, even if it is the same sampling rate

The only way to maintain LOSSLESS is to keep it EXACTLY the same (bit for bit) as the original

You may COPY Lossless, but you cannot convert it

It doesn't work that way and it is not lossless

An excellent quality lossless stereo file WILL lose spacial information and not sound as good as the original when converted to a new sampling rate that is not a direct multiple of the original

However, if you play the original lossless file using a computers clock over optical spdif output, it will sound a bad a converted file

Playback over USB audio class 2 to a high quality DAC will sound better that USB audio class 1 from an optical port "IF" and "ONLY IF" the original file is a great quality recording that remained lossless from start to finish

I think when they say lossless, they just mean that the codec is not intentionally throwing out data to make the file smaller. It doesn't say anything about the sample rate or the quality of the recording. It's just a codec that doesn't throw away data on purpose like mp3 does. Qobuz has lossless in CD quality and hi-res which is better than CD quality. Both are lossless in that the codec isn't throwing away data, but the hi-res has more data so it can sound more detailed.
 
I can only assume something was lost in translation or worded badly. I would hazard a guess that Spotify got the original lossless audio directly from their various sources.

If all they did was convert 320Kbps MP3's to whatever lossless format they want to use, they will get found out pretty quickly.
So if they bought a new "lossless" catalog, they did not "convert" what they already have

I agree, Poorly worded

The Lossy Catalog is being replaced with a lossless catalog, not converted
 
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Most people don't have a system good enough to hear the difference. Those who do, probably only use it occasionally because most people listen more in the car or on bluetooth. It doesn't really make sense to pay extra for something you only use occasionally, that is only very slightly better anyway. Audiophiles are already using Qobuz for better than lossless and that market is pretty much already taken. For everyone else, there is no reason to pay extra.
Sadly, most people cant even tell the difference betwen 20 and 200 headphones. I am not even talking about decent floor speakers.
I got interested in high quality music almost accidentally. And since that time, I am trying to expand my lossles library.
To those who dont know or dont care I still recommend to go to a place like Magnolia and try out some hq speakers.
Hifi sound is astounding. It literally makes you hear stuff you havent heard before.
 
How can you convert to lossless? I thought everything else are converted from lossless?
 
So if they bought a new "lossless" catalog, they did not "convert" what they already have

I agree, Poorly worded

The Lossy Catalog is being replaced with a lossless catalog, not converted
I mean, I wouldn't even be surprised if Spotify has digital 'masters' that they pull from when necessary. Until now, its been conversions down into a lossy format that it suitable to their current stream models. For their planned lossless model, they probably are just going to offer access to those tracks as-is, or save them to 92KHz WAVs or FLACs (assuming that isn't what they are not already).
 
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