Spotify to launch 'Hi-Fi' CD Quality Tier.

[Miguelón]

I'm not sure if you are saying that listening to mp3 may affect your preference (which I can agree) or your ability to distinguish between lossless and mp3 (which I don't see why/how it could).



This one has Mozart by Murray Perahia:

How Well Can You Hear Audio Quality?

A hi-def test for your ears (and your audio equipment): Listen to these songs and see if you can tell the difference between an MP3 and an uncompressed audio file.

www.npr.org

Thanks, was this one!

I’m saying (just conjecturing) that listening mp3 can affect the preferences. I don’t think affect any listening ability, one has the reality to hear things

Also one thing is the audio quality is “enough” which can be very variable, and another if is “the best” that can lead to obsession in all fields. For me mp3 is enough for most of the listening, it is a nonsense to walk along the port listening with headphones in loseless quality when people talking, gulls, the sea…
At home also most of the times I listen to music as an ambient, so no reason to looseless neither.

But perhaps 10-20 % of times I want a full attentively listening to an opera or a jazz concert, and then is where mp3 is not enough for me.

Or perhaps may be enough but can be improved in a relatively inexpensive way.

 

[Miguelón]

It's quite a feat to reliably tell 320kbps from lossless, but whole another thing would be to do that while just listening as usual and somebody switches the bitrate when a new track begins. There was a high end show in town earlier and in some room they accidentally played mp3 instead of lossless: nobody said anything during the whole thing. Of course, when this was later revealed a few people commented hearing this and that but just didn't mention about it.

EDIT: but if it is audible I'm not saying it's wrong getting it right. Not a huge cost or trouble.

Also what may happen, at least to my ears is a slight difference in sound when you change settings for “maximum quality” even on CD tracks or mp3 tracks on many apps. I suppose it is due to resampling or oversampling effect, I don’t know if anyone have noticed this or is my imagination.

 

[Sal1950]

Long thread, more than 3 years after Spotify keep on its 320 kbps… I think if they still have the same or more success they will continue like that or there are new rumors?

Curious.
I do wonder how many listeners Spotify "hasn't gained" since the arrival of the lossless suppliers like Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon, Apple, etc? Paid lossless hirez streaming has exploded over the last few years with Atmos/multich coming on fast. There is a huge new audience out there today that they haven't much benefited from.

 

[TheBatsEar]

Atmos/multich coming on fast

Is this some post purchase rationalization? I recently looked into multi channel music and found it to be a niche, at best, maybe even dead.

Name five streaming services that offer multichannel.
Name one sreaming service i can simply play back on a regular Debian Notebook into a multichannel DAC of my choice.
Protip: you can't.

As for Netflix, if it's cheap i'm fine with lossy.
The problem is when it's lossy and not really cheaper than other streaming services that offer lossless.

 

[Sal1950]

Is this some post purchase rationalization? I recently looked into multi channel music and found it to be a niche, at best, maybe even dead.

Name five streaming services that offer multichannel.

Amazon, Qobuz, Tidal, Apple, YouTube, enough?
Post purchase of what?
I've had multich playback gear since the early 1970s.
Yes, it's a niche, of the tiny HiFi niche, how many others spend what we do here on music, so what?
But if you were following today's release of titles in everything from Quad to Atmos you would know
how big a boom immersive music is currently in.
If you have no interest, fine, your loss.

 

[danadam]

Curious.
I do wonder how many listeners Spotify "hasn't gained" since the arrival of the lossless suppliers like Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon, Apple, etc? Paid lossless hirez streaming has exploded over the last few years with Atmos/multich coming on fast. There is a huge new audience out there today that they haven't much benefited from.

Not sure if it helps but here's number of subscribers and share of subscribers over past years based on data from here and here (for year 2024):

 

[pablolie]

Not sure if it helps but here's number of subscribers and share of subscribers over past years based on data from here and here (for year 2024):
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Kind of interesting that, even as a music aficionado, some of these are totally unknown names to me.

I use Amazon to buy an MP3 download here and there (and HDtracks for FLACs), and especially to (still) buy CDs.

Apple I used briefly in the stone ages of online music - but I totally abandoned it when more accessible, open options came along. They could have really owned the entire market, but blew it with their mentality of owning everything.

Pandora was also a service I used for a while.

Deezer, NetEase, SoundCloud, Tencent, Youtube... what, who? Of course Youtube and Tencent are known, but their music service aspect is obscure to me.

I am very invested in Spotify given all the time I have invested in curating playlists there. And as others have stated, the quality is more than good enough, especially given the fact the vast majority of recordings do not really deserve anything better than 256k VBR, come on.

Ultimately, the number that matters for any of these is *paying* subscribers and profitability. I assume Spotify is the only one that for now still challenges the two big gorillas, Amazon and Apple.

 

[Sal1950]

Not sure if it helps but here's number of subscribers and share of subscribers over past years based on data from here and here (for year 2024):

That's a good show of the % of market share they lost to others since 2018.

 

[KaeliKoo]

Happy as a clam with Tidal / Hiby Music on my mobile devices, and Spotify in my stock portfolio...

 

[Naaalaaa]

Apparently, Spotify is planning on a $5 add-on for lossless streaming: https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/06/spotify-roll-out-hifi-add-on/

Is anyone actually still waiting for Spotify HiFi? I know I'm not
And with the price difference vs other platforms, I'm not sure what Spotify is actually thinking.

 

[popej]

Maybe they don't care?
Personally I'm satisfied with 320kB. I had a little hope, that they would rather reduce price for compressed version.

 

[Multicore]

What codecs does Spotify use?

 

[Open Mind Audio]

This is a good sign, even if it's just marketing. Shows the whipper snappers want quality digital, not just vinyl.

 

[staticV3]

What codecs does Spotify use?

Audio file formats for Spotify - Spotify

support.spotify.com

 

[mhardy6647]

This thread conjures up the following image (for me, at any rate):
Spotify HQ. A somewhat disheveled looking Gen Z person is looking at a very large monitor. He's on a SETTING screen. There's a button that says "HI-FI: On-Off".
He wants to push that button.
His name might be Frank.

 

[Multicore]

Audio file formats for Spotify - Spotify

support.spotify.com

Curious. I wonder why they mix vorbis and aac like that. Maybe vorbis is preferred and aac is the compatibility fall back.

 

[Tell]

Tbh they should switch to Opus instead, 256kbps should be more than enough! And then introduce a subscription for 5 or even 10 euro extra where every single one of those euros goes into the artists pocket, that I'd gladly pay for!

 

[Roland68]

Apparently, Spotify is planning on a $5 add-on for lossless streaming: https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/06/spotify-roll-out-hifi-add-on/

Is anyone actually still waiting for Spotify HiFi? I know I'm not
And with the price difference vs other platforms, I'm not sure what Spotify is actually thinking.

When I see something like this, I always ask myself how much money would be saved if they offered everything just once in the best quality and did without complex programming, hundreds of meetings, additional employees (bloated bureaucracy), marketing, etc.

 

[ThatM1key]

I still think Spotify should just switch over to WavPack Hybrid entirely. It's stupid (for a company) to have 2 seperate files for lossless and lossy taking up extra space, if they care so much about money. If the user has a lossy plan, send them the lossy file. If the user has a hifi plan, send them the lossy file + the correction file and merge it at their end.

 

[Ruhled]

Spotify is raising their family subs from 16.99 to 19.99 and then they are going to tack on another $5 for lossless? Time to jump ship.