Spotify Still Intends to Launch Delayed HiFi Lossless Plan, Just Don't Ask When

[arkitect]

I've been using Spotify for many years… but this lack of lossless is getting tiresome.

With Apple Music I have a true love/hate relationship… mostly because of the wonky algorythms presenting me with totally irrelevant suggestions pushing genres on me that I have zero interest in, never mind a genuinely crappy app.

But!
If Apple pull off their Classical app well, then I may move back to Apple.

Unfortunately, it does have a powerful algorithm, and I keep discovering great music through it. It s*cks.

You nailed it right there.
That's why I stick with them… oh and the ability to seamlessly listen between Mac, iPad and iPhone… and controlling Mac music with the iPhone/iPad.

 

[wanha]

I am trying to shift to Tidal, especially since Tidal HiFi is only 79 Cent in Argentina 😅 but I always miss my weekly Spotify playlists and multi room streaming to my Echos 😬 therefore I am still using it as well.

Every streaming service seems to lack something.

1. Apple Music: simply too ugly with all the pink on white and you cannot seem to be able control music on one device playing on another device. With Spotify for example I can open the app on the iPhone and control the music playing on the TV or iPad. On AM I only get an „music is playing on another device“ error

2. Spotify: Audio books are a mess and trying too hard to put Podcasts in my face, which I don’t care about

3. Tidal: offline playlists don’t seem to update unless you open each playlist manually, only then does it start to download the updates.
Integration to Echo isn’t great (seems to work only via Bluetooth to a single device)

Spotify is really hampered by its business politics. They've realized they can't make enough money from regular streaming (even though they pay less than Apple or Amazon per stream), which is why they've gone full bore into podcasts - to sell ads on podcasts and thereby improve their profitability.

That's why you keep seeing podcast promotions everywhere on Spotify. It's all an attempt to create a bigger podcast audience so they can sell more ads.

 

[MrRom92]

Too little too late. Apple Music did it, didn’t charge for it, and it’s so well integrated with the whole iOS ecosystem… yeah, spotify had their chance and blew it. Maybe they should’ve never had lossy compressed audio to begin with. Didn’t think long term.

 

[krebphone]

I totally agree. But with my Marantz Streamer it would be great to hear lossless music.
Apple music is also lossless however ONLY via cable (headphones or USB) and not all network DACs or Streamers accept Ipod/iphone input. Apple music is laggy and crashes often. Amazon has a horrendous user interface and the obligatory integration with Alexa which with the Apple ecosystem is not the best! As soon as Spotify is HI FI it will have won the market!

Not true, Airplay is lossless.

 

[krewger]

Ugh, just launch it already and I’ll hand you more of my money - I have been with Spotify for over a decade, I prefer it to Apple Music still and I have both. Spotify is like Nintendo to me, not the highest quality - but the music discovery experience is the best. And also, when I travel globally and need to use different app stores - my downloaded music doesn’t get deleted on Spotify like it does on Apple Music. Have residences in US & UK.

 

[Prabas]

HiFi is whatever, most people don't have the equipment for it and others don't have hearing for it. What I want is Spatial Audio because the difference huge, it sounds so much better than regular tracks. It's like going from 60Hz screen to ~90Hz.

 

[jamcgahey]

Disclaimer: I use both.

I never understood the hate on the AM algorithm. Has anyone (that has used the service for more than a couple months) simply searched for a song to play and clicked the infinity sign and let AM play similar music to that selected song.

By doing this and the "create station" option I find SO MUCH NEW MUSIC. It just isn't what people expect via that playlist method, but it serves the same purpose.

 

[Chiromac81]

I'm more concerned about when we can get a native Spotify app on Apple Watch or play Spotify by voice on HomePods

 

[Chiromac81]

Disclaimer: I use both.

I never understood the hate on the AM algorithm. Has anyone (that has used the service for more than a couple months) simply searched for a song to play and clicked the infinity sign and let AM play similar music to that selected song.

By doing this and the "create station" option I find SO MUCH NEW MUSIC. It just isn't what people expect via that playlist method, but it serves the same purpose.

Discover now is superior

 

[MathersMahmood]

Only reason i am subscribed to Apple music is the high audio quality as standard.

 

[coffeemilktea]

I suspect they're too busy complaining to EU politicians to find the time to work on good features.

 

[WWPD]

I don't know why people tout Spotify's music algorithm, I have discovered tons of new music on Apple Music through the Made For You playlists, I have been amazed at how well it knows what I like and may want to listen to.

 

[Powerbooky]

Bingo! This isn't a technical issue, but a money one.

It never is a technical issue, it is ALWAYS a money issue.

Frankly, I don't care about the lossless plan anymore. In car you can't tell the difference between 320kbps and lossless however hard you try and bluetooth headphones doesn't support lossless codecs to begin with.

"CD quality" is no guarantee that it actually is superb quality either. 16bit/44kHz isn't that good - pretty high distortion in the higher frequencies. A compromise made in the early 80ies, partly due to technical/economic limitations faced back then. That limitation is long gone, but the industry kept the standard as they don't like change so much.

You will hear the difference when listening to 24/96kHz recordings, even on a car stereo. Of course only when the recording was done properly.

 

[SoldOnApple]

Spotify clearly doesn't want Neil Young back anytime soon.

 

[alexe]

Nobody cares about lossless.

It makes no audible difference whatsoever.

The only thing it does is create way more data streaming traffic, which is bad from a cost and environmental perspective.

In a blind test with the appropriate audio equipment, 99% of the people would not be able to tell the difference between lossless and 320 kbps MP3. Probably not even 192 kbps MP3.

Tidal has always been marketing lossless aggressively, and look at the number of subscribers they have versus Spotify or Apple Music and you see how much pull the "lossless" selling point has. Nobody cares.

 

[BuffaloTF]

Disclaimer: I use both.

I never understood the hate on the AM algorithm. Has anyone (that has used the service for more than a couple months) simply searched for a song to play and clicked the infinity sign and let AM play similar music to that selected song.

By doing this and the "create station" option I find SO MUCH NEW MUSIC. It just isn't what people expect via that playlist method, but it serves the same purpose.

That’s the thing really. To get the most out of them, you need to use them - they learn your likes and dislikes and get better over time. And time is what people don’t give to either if they were to switch. I find it hard to believe that Beats Music, which was regarded to have the best algorithm in the game, suddenly got worse because of a name change. That’s highly dubious.

 

[ignatius345]

in my opinion, their algorithms to generate playlists and discover music is still the best in the industry

I like their discovery tools a lot better too. I've shifted over to Apple Music for my daily use, but still have Spotify (my wife still prefers Spotify we use a Premium Duo account for $12.99/month).

Anyway, I sometimes take playlists from Spotify and pipe them over to Apple Music using an app called SongShift, which works brilliantly to allow migration between the two.

I use both Spotify and Apple Music, as each has their strengths.

To me, the killer feature in Apple Music is the way it uploads from my Mac songs I already own. So, I'm able to stream on my phone stuff that isn't even on a streaming platform.

 

[txscott]

social communities around Spotify

Pretty much the last thing I want in a music app. I want it to play music that I like. I don't want to connect with artists or other people. I don't care what you're listening to. And I don't want you to know what I'm listening to. And nobody has even touched on Spotify's horrible data sharing policies. Every bit as bad as Facebook.

 

[AJTC]

If Spotify does eventually offer lossless will that be an advantage to us that use it with AirPods? Not that we’d get lossless quality but I mean OGG to AAC is poor quality but if we were going maybe FLAC to AAC would that sound better?

 

[iBreatheApple]

I'd rather have HomePod support

I’d rather not have to choose 😠 I don’t know who is more at fault or resisting some type of agreement or requirement but it’s absolutely insane that they’ve not yet implemented this. I know Apple (Siri) blames it on Spotify… Anyway, my HomePod is next to useless for me because of this. I find Siri minimally useful. I use both it and Alexa daily and Alexa is astronomically more informative. I’d love to ditch Amazon for Apple due feeling my data is more secure, but at this point I find too much usefulness in random day to day requests around the house to give it up. Siri is so ignorant. And seemingly increasingly so, despite that sounding impossible.

 

[gleepskip]

Pretty much the last thing I want in a music app. I want it to play music that I like. I don't want to connect with artists or other people. I don't care what you're listening to. And I don't want you to know what I'm listening to. And nobody has even touched on Spotify's horrible data sharing policies. Every bit as bad as Facebook.

Communities around Spotify, not within. A good example is r/spotify on Reddit. People create and publish playlists. I've found several great playlists I never would have made myself there. It's not a failed social feature injected into the UI like Apple have attempted multiple times.

 

[juliettet]

I played a cd, a mere 16/44, in my car and then the Spotify version and my daughter was astounded at the difference. Let’s go Spotify I want lossless!

 

[iBreatheApple]

Spotify are certainly better at choosing playlists. But that’s where it stops.
And they are now introducing AI voice introductions to their premium subscriptions. Do people really want to hear an Ai generated dj instead of the music? Stupid stupid stupid.

Maybe they need to prioritise where they are spending everyone’s money.

It’s as easy as toggling DJ off / not using that feature.

 

[iBreatheApple]

Not that HiFi matters much for people using AirPods, EarPods, Beats or any other Bluetooth gear for that matter. It also introduces a much greater lag when streaming, so the only real benefit of HiFi is for people with dedicated HiFi equipment who want the maximum immersion into their sound.

Other than that, app aesthetics aside (as this is very individual), I still find Spotify better than Apple Music for its main task, which is playing & discovering music. I regularly retry Apple Music, but still cannot find a reason to switch.

I know I’m the minority but it’s wild to me that MOST people don’t care. I’m not gonna say I can sit here and point out the differences in how hifi sounds better but I always want the best audio equipment (within my personal budge). For example if I ever upgrade my living room system I’ll probably be willing to spend up to $5-$6k. Not sure if that’s super high or just average but I think the average person spends a lot less. Which is fine, I just can’t imagine being okay with budget audio if I have a disposable income.

 

[iBreatheApple]

"We were going to charge more for HiFi but then Apple and Amazon started including Lossless for free." That's the answer for why there's no HiFi yet.

This is where my brain is at.

Damn three posts in a row. Sorry mods. I would usually consolidate. I’m bored at the dealership waiting room lol.