Lossless audio has finally arrived on Spotify Premium – read our full story for more.
Rumours of a higher tier Spotify subscription aimed at higher quality speakers or headphones have circled for years.
The company first announced it was working on a new tier offering CD-quality music using a lossless compression format all the way back in February 2021. The high-quality streams would, the company said, be “rolling out in select markets” later that year. We even got a Billie Eilish featuring ad and everything. But since then, nothing official has happened. Yep, that’s over four years we’ve been waiting.
Spotify usually streams music using the compressed Vorbis and AAC formats, which make better use of the available bandwidth but are both ‘lossy’. That means bits of the original music file are thrown away in an attempt to reduce the amount of data being sent. Lossless on Spotify Premium now offers up to 24bit/44.1kHz FLAC audio.
Spotify co-president Gustav Söderström told The Verge in March 2023 that Spotify “are going to do it [HiFi], but we’re going to do it in a way where it makes sense for us and for our listeners. The industry changed and we had to adapt.” Söderström added that the hi-res service “is coming at some point.” That time is now.
There was a lot of speculation Spotify HiFi might be announced at the company’s annual Stream On event on 8 March 2023. Instead the presentation showed us a bunch of creator tools, user features, and new programming available on the service. The platform was TikTokified, with the company officially announcing a new scrollable layout and extra Spotify exclusive podcasts.
We also got the AI DJ app – a feature that adds an MC, blends and other algorithmic personalisations to playlists. Listeners can discover new music overseen by the voice of Xavier ‘X‘ Jernigan, who will recommend songs, and offer pieces of trivia on your favourite artists.
Will there still be a Spotify Music Pro or Supremium subscription?
Perhaps there will. According to Bloomberg, subscribers can expect remixing tools to blend two tracks together (with a little help from artificial intelligence) and exclusive pre-sale concert tickets, on top of the new higher quality streaming tier. This name lines up with the ‘Pro’ branding found within the Spotfiy app in April 2024.
Before that point, all signs were pointing to the new tier being called ‘Supremium’. Reddit user u/Hypixely found references to it in the Spotify app back in September 2023, along with 24-bit lossless music support (which has now launched separately), AI-powered playlists, and advanced mixing tools. Bloomberg also reported the name would be Supremium, while Threads user Chris Messina shared a possible logo.
More details came from u/Hypixely, who trawled through lines of code to reveal hints including the words ‘lossless has arrived’, as well as some evidence that the upgrade will play ‘up to 24-bit/44.1kHz’ FLAC files. Again, this element has launched separately.
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