Spotify is making its way into the home with a new Spotify Hifi coming later this year. The Spotify Hifi is a music streaming device designed to play music from your smartphone or laptop. It offers high-res audio tiers, lossless audio streaming and Bluetooth.
Lossless audio streaming
Spotify has a history of being a company that is constantly changing and trying new things. Adding lossless audio streaming to their service is a recent example of this.
While Spotify hasn’t yet announced a launch date for the service, they have said that it will be available later this year. This could give them an edge over Apple Music, which hasn’t been offering lossless audio streaming for quite some time.
Lossless audio is more detailed and can sound more immersive. However, it can consume a lot of data. For this reason, it’s important to have a healthy data allowance. Also, you will need high quality headphones or speakers for best results.
Spotify’s HiFi will deliver CD-quality lossless audio streams. In addition, it will allow users to play back lossless tracks using Spotify Connect-enabled speakers.
However, while Spotify hasn’t announced pricing or the catalog of songs that will be available, it’s a safe bet that it will include tens of millions of albums in its catalog. As such, it’s likely that the cost will be higher than the standard premium plan.
It’s possible that Spotify will launch a Platinum tier, which would offer unlimited lossless audio. This would cost twice as much as an Individual tier.
It’s also possible that Spotify will share its lossless CD quality songs with other competing services. Tidal has been providing lossless music streaming for years.
Whether or not Spotify offers lossless music streams, it’s clear that the company is interested in ensuring that their service is as high-quality as possible. To accomplish this, they’re partnering with the world’s biggest speaker manufacturers.
With lossless audio streaming, you’ll be able to listen to the music as the artists intended. Streamers have long hoped for a better audio experience from Spotify.
High-res audio tier
Spotify’s new tier will offer lossless audio. It will start at CD quality, but move to 24 bit at 48 kHz. Streams will be compatible with both high-end headphones and consumer headphones.
The HiFi service tier will also offer higher bitrates than standard Spotify. This will make sure that the sonic detail is preserved.
As for pricing, it’s not clear what the range will be. However, the tier is expected to cost around $20-30 per month.
Tidal and Deezer have already started offering their own hi-res streaming services. Amazon Music also offers 24-bit/192 kHz audio streams.
Some speculate that Spotify’s HiFi may not launch until 2022. But that’s still a year away, and there’s no information yet on when it might happen.
Apple and Amazon also offer their own high-res streaming options. Both offer a free trial of their own lossless music.
Despite this, Spotify has not announced any concrete details on its upcoming tier. Instead, it’s left users guessing.
When Spotify first revealed plans for a high-res audio tier last year, they said it would be available by the end of 2021. Later, however, it was delayed. Since then, the company has remained silent on the subject.
In early February, the company also announced a Platinum tier, which is said to have higher quality audio. Though it costs more, it’s thought to have perks such as Studio Sound.
According to a survey on the Spotify Community website, Platinum customers would be able to listen to high-res music. There is also a thread discussing rival lossless offerings.
Spotify’s new tier will compete with both Tidal and Apple Music. And while it’s not yet clear when it’ll be released, it’s expected that it will be available later this year.
Spatial audio
Spatial audio is an immersive listening experience. This type of sound is created by transmitting surround sound through your headphones. It’s not just limited to Apple devices. You can enjoy the experience on Spotify and other music streaming services.
While there’s no official word from Spotify on when spatial audio will become available, it’s expected to be released in the future. For now, though, users can experience it on AirPods, which support it. However, not all headphones or speakers will be able to reproduce the feature, so you may have to settle for stereo.
Fortunately, you can check whether your headphones support spatial audio. You can do so by checking the status in Settings. Once you find the headphones’ status, you can change the setting to On or Off. If you don’t see a Spatial Audio option, it might be time to update your firmware.
For an even more immersive listening experience, you can use Apple Music’s High-Resolution Lossless streaming feature. This is a premium feature that offers a superior listening experience. The downside is that you will have to use high-quality headphones and a high-quality DAC.
Alternatively, you can use Personalized Spatial Audio, which uses your iPhone’s TrueDepth camera to create your own spatial audio profile. You will need an iPhone with a TrueDepth camera and iOS 16. Personalized spatial audio is compatible with AirPods, Beats and other supported headsets.
The only issue is that spatial audio is not currently supported on Apple TV. It’s also not currently available on other Macs.
However, Apple did just release head-tracking support for spatial audio in iOS 15.1. To turn it on, you’ll need to download the iOS 15.1 beta. In addition to supporting Spatial Audio, iOS 15.1 includes a new feature called Audio Mode. Using Audio Mode, you can listen to Spotify tracks without ads.
Streaming over Bluetooth
If you are a Spotify user, you might be happy to know that Bluetooth is coming to the streaming service in the form of Spotify HiFi. The technology is expected to launch later this year and will allow users to stream CD-quality music in the comfort of their homes.
While Spotify hasn’t yet confirmed a specific release date for the service, it is expected that the technology will be available in a few markets by the end of the year. At this time, we don’t know what the price will be, but we do know that HiFi will be lossless audio.
To use Bluetooth to play Spotify, you’ll need a device that supports the Bluetooth codec. Some Bluetooth speakers can support the aptX HD codec, which is designed to transmit audio in CD-quality.
Bluetooth can also be used with speakers that support NFC. In order to pair with a Bluetooth-enabled speaker, simply place your device in the designated area. Once the speaker has been paired, you can adjust the volume or play music through the speaker.
However, while Bluetooth is a convenient way to stream music, it has limitations. It is not a reliable connection and can only allow users to listen to music for a limited amount of time.
For a better experience, you might want to consider wireless music streaming methods such as Airplay or Spotify Connect. They use home networks or smartphones to transmit audio. You can control playback from the app or from other devices, and they save battery power by using less power.
Streaming over Bluetooth might be a good option for many users, but if you’re interested in a lossless audio experience, you’ll need to connect your device directly to a high-end speaker. Alternatively, you can use a Digital to Analogue Converter (DAC) to boost the quality of your audio files.
Streaming at CD quality
One of the most popular streaming services, Spotify, has plans to offer high-resolution audio streaming later this year. According to the company, this service will come in the form of Spotify HiFi. The feature will allow users to listen to music at CD quality, and will be available in select markets.
Several streaming services, including Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Tidal, offer higher-resolution audio. These lossless streaming features are designed to give consumers a better experience when listening to music. They also take up more data than standard Spotify streams.
For the past several months, Spotify has been quiet about its plans to add HiFi. But recent chatter suggests that the feature could be coming soon. This could indicate that Spotify is taking seriously the demand for higher-resolution audio.
It appears that the feature will come in the form of an upgrade to Premium subscribers. However, there has been no specific detail about the price or the time frame for its launch. And, given the competitive landscape in the streaming industry, it seems likely that Spotify will rethink its strategy for HiFi streaming.
Besides Spotify, Amazon Music HD and Qobuz have recently released features that allow customers to listen to high-resolution music. Both services have licensing agreements with major record labels. While Amazon has introduced hi-res streaming, Qobuz has gone one step further and offers a “CD-quality” tier that allows subscribers to listen to albums in 9216kbps.
Unlike Amazon, however, Spotify has never outlined its pricing plan. Given the competition from Apple and Amazon, it would make sense for Spotify to revise its pricing strategy.
If the company chooses to go this route, there’s no guarantee that the new streaming tier will include Dolby Atmos. However, if it does, it will give Spotify more credibility with audiophiles.