A new Spotify subscription plan will let you enjoy songs without any loss to the quality.
Spotify HiFi is slated to arrive in select markets later this year, at which point Spotify Premium users, who pay $9.99 per month, will be offered the chance to upgrade. “High-quality music streaming is consistently one of the most requested new features by our users,” Spotify said in announcing the subscription plan.
Currently, you can listen to songs on a Spotify Premium account at up to 320kilobits per second, which is pretty good, but not completely faithful to the song’s original production.
Spotify HiFi promises to bring “music in CD-quality, lossless audio format” to the service. As a result, users will have the chance to enjoy all the subtle audio details they may have missed in their favorite recordings.
The lossless audio quality will also work via Spotify Connect-enabled speakers. “Ubiquity is at the core of everything we do at Spotify, and we’re working with some of the world’s biggest speaker manufacturers to make Spotify HiFi accessible to as many fans as possible through Spotify Connect,” the company added.
However, one big unknown is the price. The company refrained from saying how much Spotify HiFi will add to a customer’s monthly subscription. But for perspective, rival service Tidal offers its own high-fidelity plan for $19.99 a month, while Amazon sells its own HD music plan for $14.99 a month.
Also announced today: a podcast from Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen. On the heels of successful Spotify show from former First Lady Michelle Obama, the former president is also jumping into the podcast game with Renegades: Born in the USA, an eight-episode series that will explore topics of race, fatherhood, marriage, and the future of America, Spotify says. The first two episodes are live now.