Elusive Spotify Lossless Option May Arrive as Paid 'Music Pro' Add-on

Spotify's elusive lossless music experience is being teased again, this time based on code uncovered by The Verge in recent builds of the Spotify app for Android.

General Spotify Feature
More than three years have elapsed since Spotify announced its intention to offer a "HiFi" premium option that would give users access to a catalog of CD-quality music tracks. Originally the company said the tier would go live by the end of 2021, but a shift in the wider streaming market upended that idea.

Apple Music has since rolled lossless listening into its standard subscription price, while Amazon stopped charging extra for its lossless music library. The moves effectively kiboshed Spotify's original strategy of marketing an exclusively lossless HiFi tier.

That said, it doesn't sound as if lossless is coming as a free perk. The latest rumors suggest that Spotify now aims to offer lossless audio playback in an optional "Music Pro" add-on that will also include new DJ remix features, which let subscribers "speed up, mash-up, and otherwise edit" tracks from their favorite artists, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Spotify will likely make some basic remixing tools available as part of its Premium subscription (currently $10.99 a month, or $5.99 for students), but more powerful tools will be part of its "Music Pro" add-on. Where recent rumors of a new top "Supremium" tier fit in is unclear.

The intended price of the premium add-on has not been revealed, but given that major rivals include lossless in their standard plans, expecting subscribers to pay anything more than a nominal fee may be a big ask.

Tag: Spotify

Top Rated Comments

ladodger5 Avatar
2 weeks ago
Airplay 2 would be nice
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Squuiid Avatar
2 weeks ago
Native HomePod integration would be nice.
https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/iOS-Implement-Native-HomePod-Support/idi-p/4985214
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
krspkbl Avatar
2 weeks ago
And most people still won't notice any difference in quality. I'll stick with the standard tier because I do my listening through AirPods and my desktop speakers aren't good enough for lossless.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
vertsix Avatar
2 weeks ago

effectively kiboshed
Huh. Kiboshed? Never heard that word before lol.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fakestrawberryflavor Avatar
2 weeks ago

And most people still won't notice any difference in quality. I'll stick with the standard tier because I do my listening through AirPods and my desktop speakers aren't good enough for lossless.
I have a dac and 2000$ speaker setup and I can't tell a difference between apple lossless, my Flac cd rips, and Spotify high 320kpbs

I'm sure technically there is somewhere but I'm hard pressed to find it
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jmarsh5 Avatar
2 weeks ago
*Coming Soon...









...2031*
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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