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Spotify Rumored to Launch HiFi Audio as Part of New Top-Tier 'Supremium' Subscription Plan

Been using Spotify for years. Mainly because I just don't like Apple Music app's design.

But I wonder, how many people would be actually able to tell the difference between 320kbps and HiFi - with majority listening to their music on not-so-great headphones or laptop's speakers.

I've been using Final Audio's E5000 together with Shanling UP2 amplifier for three years and I was happy.
Eventually I got tired of cables and got myself 1More EVO two weeks ago. And WOW. To my ears, 320 from Spotify sounds absolutely brilliant once you set up your own EQ in 1More app.

To be fair I never tried Tidal or Apple's Lossless so cannot speak of those.

We shall see. I will probably give it a try for a month to see for myself if I can even hear some difference in quality.
 
Born Again said:
Help me find new music - how do I do it?
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Under Listen Now listen to the station created for you. You have to do work in listening to music, liking, disliking, and loving songs but over time it will learn what you like. Spotify or whatever other service you might use will also work a similar way. It takes effort and time (not a lot of effort but the time is the time to listen and then click a like or dislike). I work at a desk much of the time so I can just leave music playing and then quickly add or interact with songs as needed.

There will be other Made for You playlists and Stations for You. When songs come up you like, "like" them and/or add them to your library. I also spend time browsing through new releases in genres I like more. Through all this I add music to my library regularly. I've added 170 tracks in the past 4 months to my library. On average I'm adding 1-2 songs per day over time.
 
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bruno7 said:
Been using Spotify for years. Mainly because I just don't like Apple Music app's design.

But I wonder, how many people would be actually able to tell the difference between 320kbps and HiFi - with majority listening to their music on not-so-great headphones or laptop's speakers.

I've been using Final Audio's E5000 together with Shanling UP2 amplifier for three years and I was happy.
Eventually I got tired of cables and got myself 1More EVO two weeks ago. And WOW. To my ears, 320 from Spotify sounds absolutely brilliant once you set up your own EQ in 1More app.

To be fair I never tried Tidal or Apple's Lossless so cannot speak of those.

We shall see. I will probably give it a try for a month to see for myself if I can even hear some difference in quality.
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I've done a lot of unscientific tests with HiFi music on a "low end" but highly rated preamp (Topping) with a well-regarded Class D amp (S.M.S.L.) connected to KEF bookshelf speakers. I can't tell the difference between Apple's AAC and their Lossless. I've also done tests with my Sennheiser 650 headphones. No clear difference to me.

The only thing that reliably improves the music for me is Spatial Audio (Dolby Atmos). This has a subtle effect in some tracks (it really depends on the audio engineer) but is absolutely incredible in others (particularly orchestral). One example is a Radu Lupu & London Symphony Orchestra (1973) recording of Schumann's Piano Concerto in A Minor (Op. 54). When listening through headphones or an Atmos-capable system, it sounds like you are standing by the piano in front of the orchestra and can localize each instrument section to the appropriate place.

That's the main reason I cannot go back to Spotify (that and I have an Apple One subscription for my family so it's not worth paying extra for Spotify).
 
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cocky jeremy said:
They can't even get people to pay for their own accounts. lol. It isn't even a good comparison to make either. Some stuff on Netflix is only available on Netflix. Most music is available on most (or all) streaming platforms.
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Weren't we talking about upcharging for better quality? I thought we were. Now we're comparing other issues and differences? Not interested in that discussion.
 
MauiPa said:
Nope nope nope. Spotify doesn’t deserve anyone’s money until they pay the artists better
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Three quarters of their revenue goes back to the music industry in licensing. Do you think that they shouldn't be using the other 25% to cover their costs?
 
Apple Fan 2008 said:
Just get Apple Music at those prices.
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I really haven't been able to get into any music streaming services. Closest thing is YouTube Music, which I'm not fond about either, but it's included since I'm on a family plan of YouTube Premium. I was shocked that one of them got YouTube Premium not for the ad-free YouTube access, but for YouTube Music! :oops: I guess if I traveled more, I'd get into the weeds of it (like how you can upload your music collection to access over the internet), but for the time being, I'd rather just stream directly from YouTube. And yes, I'm no audiophile, so not being "lossless" doesn't phaze me.

MacRumors said:
Apple Music gained support for Lossless audio in 2021 and users do not need to pay more to get access to it. There are no Apple Music subscription tiers, so Lossless audio is included in all plans with the exception of the Apple Music Voice Plan. An Apple Music subscription costs $10.99 per month for individuals or $16.99 for families. Apple Music is also included in all of the Apple One subscription bundles, which range from $16.95 per month to $32.95 per month.
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I'm guessing this has the benefit of not complicating and inundating users with too many choices/options for the Apple One bundle. AFAIK, Spotify is only music streaming, so it can offer more choices there.
 
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gaximus said:
Did Spotify Premium really not already have HiFi Audio? I'm kinda shocked.
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PhantomStar said:
Honestly most people would probably won’t be able to tell the difference between the audio quality. Not worth it for me.
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I was going to post the latter, in response to the former. I don't even want to invest in hardware for that level of audio quality. Me, I'd rather save the $$ on all fronts.

It's not unlike streaming services where I'd rather not be forced to pay extra for 4K when I have no 4K TV, nor other setups to support that. HD is perfectly fine for me.

Brad7 said:
Really funny to see all these businesses thinking they can weather the recession by raising prices 😂, driving people away instead of toward them. They will learn soon.
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It kinda does make sense... you can't expect infinite growth b/c the consumer base there isn't infinite. And it's made worse by the sheer saturation of it all (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora). At some point, it's about the quality of customers. Apple and Nintendo are 2 big ones that do this. They don't discount their products and services just to "get more buyers and subs".

Esp. for Apple, I'm definitely NOT one they're catering towards b/c I've been using discount Android phones and been plenty happy with them. No, it's not near as nice as top of the line iPhones, but I don't want to pay $800 to $1300 for a phone either. I get most of what I'd like in a phone, at a fraction of the price! For Nintendo, that's gotta be balanced b/c one major advantage of getting Nintendo consoles is access to their 1st party titles (which annoyingly, hardly get discounted).
 
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Can someone explain the whole airplay issue with Spotify? I'm currently listening to Spotify and just sent my audio to my homepod using the airplay bluetooth button. Maybe I just don't understand what Airplay is?
 
Mrkevinfinnerty said:
Is it much better to give your money to a company using slaves in the supply chain for their trillion dollar corporation. I wonder what Rogan did that you perceive to be worse.
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Unless you use a Fairphone that's probably a moot point and a nice straw man.

I -- we all -- support the treatment of workers in Apple's supply chain by buying their hardware, not by using Apple Music.

My main choice here is whether in addition to that I want to give money to a company that supports a guy like Rogan. I decided not to.
 
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neuropsychguy said:
Under Listen Now listen to the station created for you. You have to do work in listening to music, liking, disliking, and loving songs but over time it will learn what you like. Spotify or whatever other service you might use will also work a similar way. It takes effort and time (not a lot of effort but the time is the time to listen and then click a like or dislike). I work at a desk much of the time so I can just leave music playing and then quickly add or interact with songs as needed.

There will be other Made for You playlists and Stations for You. When songs come up you like, "like" them and/or add them to your library. I also spend time browsing through new releases in genres I like more. Through all this I add music to my library regularly. I've added 170 tracks in the past 4 months to my library. On average I'm adding 1-2 songs per day over time.
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Thanks I will give it a shot
 
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FaustsHausUK said:
The number of subscribers rose after they instituted this policy. That tells you plenty - that it didn't result in the mass exodus many predicted, myself included.
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The people paying for the account aren't going to cancel just because other people can't use their account anymore. It doesn't change anything for the one paying for the account. My Netflix is free through T-Mobile or I would have canceled it years ago. It's just junk no one wants to watch anyway. The standup comedy specials are the only thing on there worth anything.
 
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Bawstun said:
way, the user experience of Apple Music isn’t anything remotely close to that of Spotify. Completely blows Apple Music out of the water in user interface, official podcasts, music algorithms and more…
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I agree. Every year I’ll try Apple Music again because they pay more to artists but the whole thing seems so lacklustre as if it is still worthy of the name “iTunes”.
 
BMox81 said:
If you’re referring to the Bloomberg article, there is nothing in there saying that this Supremium tier (or whatever it ends up being called) will be priced the same as Apple Music.

Even as a current subscriber to Spotify Premium Family, ultimately it boils to price. It looks increasingly likely that I’m not going to get Hi-Fi for what I’m paying now and then when you factor other subs in, you can understand why the lure of Apple Music (and in turn Apple One) then comes into play.
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I was referring to the article posted here that concluded:

"With Spotify Premium costing just $1 less than Apple Music, it seems highly likely that the streamer's Supremium Tier will come in at a higher price point than Apple's rival service."

That seems logical to me, but I guess we'll find out.
 
I figure this only matters to less than one in ten listeners, and then isn’t actually just a placebo for less than one in ten of those people.

That’s not based on any science or research, but it is, in fact, based on about as much research as 90% of the people who claim they can tell the difference between an iTunes Plus track and it’s lossless counterpart. 😎

They will swear to you they can. They will will downvote you. They will claim they can tell with conviction…. but they won’t take a blind test to verify it.
 
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