Spotify is adding a new Hi-Fi audio subscription option to its platform.
Beginning later this year, Spotify Premium subscribers in select markets will be able to ‘upgrade’ their sound quality to Spotify HiFi, according to the music streaming company.
The news was announced during Spotify’s Stream On event today (February 22), which saw Billie Eilish and FINNEAS talk about high-quality audio.
Spotify says that Spotify HiFi will deliver music in CD-quality, lossless audio and that it is currently working with some of ‘the world’s biggest speaker manufacturers to make Spotify HiFi accessible to as many fans as possible through Spotify Connect’.
SPOT also says that high quality music streaming ‘is consistently one of the most requested new features’ by its users.
SPOT has confirmed that its new subscription offering will begin rolling out in select markets later this year, but the company hasn’t yet confirmed if there will be an additional cost or not, and if so how much that would be.
The new HiFi tier will bring Spotify in line with rivals like TIDAL, Deezer and Amazon Music.
Amazon Music launched Amazon Music HD in the US, UK, Germany and Japan in September 2019.
It costs existing Amazon Prime members $12.99 (US) / £12.99 (UK) a month and non-Prime members $14.99 / $14.99 a month. Existing Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers can upgrade for an additional $5 / £5 a month.
One of the best known existing hi-def music streaming offering comes from TIDAL, whose TIDAL Hi-FI subscription tier costs $19.99 per month and offers CD-quality lossless streams at 44.1 kHz / 16 bit.
Meanwhile, Deezer offers a HiFi tier at a standard price of $14.99 per month, which, like TIDAL’s equivalent, streams music at 44.1 kHz / 16-bit via FLAC files.
“High quality audio means more info, there are things you will not hear if you don’t have a good sound system.”
Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish, said: “High quality audio means more info, there are things you will not hear if you don’t have a good sound system.
“It’s really important just because we make music that [we] want to be heard in the way that it was made.”
“Anytime anyone really takes time to sit down with our music and listen to it in a really high quality way it’s very exciting because I know they are hearing everything that we intended them to.”
FINNEAS
FINNEAS added: “Anytime anyone really takes time to sit down with our music and listen to it in a really high quality way it’s very exciting because I know they are hearing everything that we intended them to.”Music Business Worldwide
