Leaked Images Show ‘Spotify Lossless’ May Be Launching Soon
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It’s been three years since Apple turned the music streaming industry upside down by upgrading its full Apple Music catalog to hi-res lossless audio at no extra charge to subscribers. Now, after a couple of false starts, it looks like Spotify is finally on the cusp of doing the same.
Before Apple’s big move, the only mainstream services that offered high-resolution audio streaming were Amazon and Tidal. The latter became a go-to streaming destination for serious music fans when it opened its doors in 2014 with Tidal HiFI, and Amazon followed suit in 2019 with Amazon Music HD. However, both of these services charged a premium price for those who wanted a higher-quality listening experience.
In early 2021, Spotify was ready to take a similar plunge into a HiFi lossless streaming tier. Unfortunately (for Spotify), Apple took the wind out of its sails before it could get its plans off the ground. Only three months after Spotify’s announcement, Apple Music declared that lossless audio would become the new standard for its service. By the end of that year, the entire Apple Music catalog has been switched over to lossless, with many tracks also available in Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio or an even higher quality 24-bit/48KHz “Hi-Resolution Lossless” format.
Spotify got very quiet about “Spotify HiFi” after that. It wasn’t until early 2023 that executives were willing to comment on the company’s plans, tacitly admitting that Apple had done an end-run around them (“the industry changed,” said Spotify co-president Gustav Söderström) and forced the company to rethink its plans.
After all, Apple’s announcement changed the game for everyone. Amazon, which, in retrospect, must have known this one was coming, ?eliminated its Amazon Music HD pricing tier the same day?, offering all Amazon Music subscribers its best-quality audio at no extra charge. Even Tidal, which held out for much longer, recently threw in the towel and similarly dropped its premium plan.
Spotify faced the challenge of trying to figure out how it could afford to deliver lossless audio tracks without raising prices. Delivering lossless audio not only increases costs for the technical requirements, but the labels undoubtedly require higher licensing fees for higher-quality audio. It’s unclear how Apple and Amazon managed to deal with these higher costs — they may have been able to sign better deals with the music industry — but it appears Spotify hasn’t been so fortunate.
Instead, we began hearing rumors last year of a Spotify “Supremium” plan in the works, suggesting that it was indeed trying to find a way to charge more for lossless audio, possibly by offering more than just lossless audio.
For example, some sources said that Spotify would increase audiobook listening limits for “Supremium” subscribers. That benefit is unique to Spotify, and earlier this year, the company raised prices to accommodate audiobook listeners while offering a new “basic” tier that omits audiobooks entirely.
Last month, another report suggested that Spotify was preparing to release the new tier as a Music Pro add-on to its standard plans, rolling in additional benefits like patented headphone optimization features, more advanced library filtering, and possibly even AI-generated playlists. However, now the folks at The Verge have shared news of UI elements in the latest build of the Spotify app that show the feature is ready and nearing release.
According to Redditor OhItsSTom, the app now includes a dialog to adjust “File streaming quality” with a “Lossless” option above the 320 kbps “Very High” that shows “Up to 1,411 kbps.” That’s the same bitrate as CD audio and typical uncompressed WAV files.
Another section shows Lossless as supporting “up to 2117 kbps” in 24-bit/44.1kHz FLAC (Fully Lossless Audio Codec) format “available on limited songs.”
There will also apparently be a compatibility checker that will help users determine if their device, connection type, and bandwidth will support lossless audio, so nobody wastes their time downloading massive FLAC files when they’re only listening on Bluetooth headphones.
The leaker, OhItsTom, notes that these are only visuals at this point, and lossless playback isn’t working yet unless you’re a Spotify employee. Spotify is also said to be referring to it internally as “enhanced listening” rather than “HiFi,” although other screenshots that show the intro and upgrade screens reveal that Spotify may brand it simply as “Spotify Lossless.”
Things look promising for Spotify fans, who may soon be able to enjoy lossless audio — at least for those who haven’t already given up hope after three years of what The Verge calls “ghosting and broken promises.” While it’s unclear from the leaked screenshots, it’s also still likely Spotify will charge extra for the privilege of lossless listening.
