After months of rumors, Spotify HiFi has become something of a running gag by now. But rumors say it’s really coming soon this time…
In this article from The Verge, they know it (almost) for sure: Spotify HiFi is about to be launched soon. The rumored service should offer 24-bit lossless streams, according to analyzed program code. Trouble is, the expected (and also mentioned in-code) price is quite high: $19.99 dollars per month. That’s double the normal subscription price. If that rumor turns out to be true, Spotify’s HiFi branch is going to have a tough time from the start. After all, at Apple Music and Amazon Music, you don’t pay a single Euro- or dollar cent extra for lossless streams. A traditional high-res service like Qobuz will cost you just $10.83 a month. And a Tidal subscription costs $10.99 a month in the standard version. For which you get lossless CD quality in return.
Only the Tidal HiFi Plus subscription offers high-res sound at an exact same price as mentioned in the rumor circuit for Spotify HiFi. Problem is only, that Tidal with its hires sound tier is an establishment (as is Qobuz, by the way). Spotify isn’t at all, but seen primarily as a music service for the masses.