Spotify's long-awaited HiFi tier is finally coming, but it'll cost you extra

Shawn Knight · Tuesday at 11:07 AM

In a nutshell: Spotify is preparing to launch its long-awaited high-fidelity streaming service later this year. Sources told Bloomberg that the Swedish music giant could charge as much as $5.99 per month for access – and that's on top of the standard monthly fee that premium users already pay.

Rumblings of a Spotify HiFi tier have persisted for several years. In early 2023, Spotify co-president Gustav Söderström said the industry changed after they initially announced the service, and that they would need to rethink their strategy in a way that makes sense for them and their listeners before a rollout could occur.

The industry change Söderström referenced was likely Apple's decision to start offering lossless quality to its streaming music subscribers. Others, including Amazon, followed suit shortly after.

Sources now tell Bloomberg that the HiFi tier, reportedly dubbed Music Pro, will be an add-on for existing, paying subscribers – a "super-fan" streaming experience, if you will. In addition to higher-quality tracks, users will be able to leverage remixing tools and get early access to concert tickets. The $5.99 per month price is not set in stone as the company is still hammering out details and licensing rights. Pricing is also expected to vary by region, with cheaper rates in less-developed markets.

Even with mixing tools and early access to ticket sales, Spotify could have a hard time marketing Music Pro against the competition. An individual Apple Music subscription sells for $11.99 per month, and the full catalog is offered in lossless. A Spotify individual membership also starts at $11.99, plus the cost of the Music Pro add-on. That is nearly $18 a month and let's be honest, how many people are really going to care about concert tickets or remixing software?

Spotify previously considered adding audiobook access for HiFi subscribers, but ended up rolling this perk into its standard premium package. Now, premium members get 15 hours / month of listening time from the audiobooks subscriber catalog.

Image credit: Getty Images, Natalia Blauth

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Spotify's long-awaited HiFi tier is finally coming, but it'll cost you extra

Notmare · Tuesday at 11:24 AM

I already switched to Tidal, where the family plan is cheaper, the quality is already better, and they pay out a lot more to the artists when you stream...

GoldenGoat · Tuesday at 11:44 AM

Unless you have a $10,000 audiophile system, you probably won’t hear the difference. unless they lower the quality of the standard plan.

hash1970 · Tuesday at 3:57 PM

GoldenGoat said:
Unless you have a $10,000 audiophile system, you probably won’t hear the difference. unless they lower the quality of the standard plan.

I can hear the difference on a iphone ,even on a budget hifi system there’s a huge difference

kiwigraeme · Tuesday at 4:00 PM

GoldenGoat said:
Unless you have a $10,000 audiophile system, you probably won’t hear the difference. unless they lower the quality of the standard plan.

But so many say the can hear the difference instantly, can tell a $2000 DAC is better than a $100 Dac , cables huge diff

, $60 DACs are beyond transparency , that's not to say DACS aren't different , timing, features , noise, output control, their own signature added on top , power of signal out, connections etc

Really very few can tell if same master and true double blind, Yes on killer samples lossy will be able to be spotted , but these are trained for and known what to look for - nothing like real world listening

A HQ lossy vs lossless for 99% of content sounds the same, and 100% the same for 98% of the population. So unless you are in that 2% and you listen to had to encode types of music- you are just buying placebo and piece of mind

add if a difference does no automatically mean you prefer the lossless one - many sound systems modify sound for more pleasant listening eg roll off bright music

NotYourITguy · Tuesday at 5:50 PM

"how many people are really going to care about concert tickets"

Completely depends on the artists. There are certain artists that people would pay more than the whole year subscription price just to have the chance to buy tickets at retail pricing.

Axiarus · Tuesday at 8:42 PM

You know, people hate on Apple, but they offer HiFi for no extra cost.

unoficialoficial · Wednesday at 3:56 AM

If you conduct an experiment by taking your favorite song in FLAC or WAV (lossless formats) and converting it to a 160 kbps MP3 (lossy format), you will likely still enjoy it just as much. The only subtle differences will be in frequencies over 15 kHz, which most people have difficulty to hearing them anyway.

If a song sounds good, it will sound good in all formats. Conversely, if it sounds bad, it will sound bad in all formats as well. There is not even one song from the hundreds of millions available that sounds bad at 160kbps MP3 and good at FLAC. Audio codecs at bitrates above 160 kbps do not damage the audio; any perceived "damage" to the audio comes from the source, not the codecs and cannot be fixed by changing codecs.

Spotify's long-awaited HiFi tier is finally coming, but it'll cost you extra

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,573 +196

In a nutshell: Spotify is preparing to launch its long-awaited high-fidelity streaming service later this year. Sources told Bloomberg that the Swedish music giant could charge as much as $5.99 per month for access – and that's on top of the standard monthly fee that premium users already pay.

Notmare

Posts: 41 +46

GoldenGoat

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hash1970

kiwigraeme

Posts: 2,587 +1,846

NotYourITguy

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Axiarus

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unoficialoficial

Posts: 139 +96

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