Spotify comes with an extra expensive subscription, so you can listen to music in the best sound quality. Does that sound better than the competition? We list the current offer.
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Spotify HiFi will be a new subscription to the well-known streaming service to listen to music in extra high quality. When we can use it and how expensive this subscription will be, remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: you listen to music without any loss of quality.
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That is the case. Music is converted into data for streaming services. A music file can be large or small, due to the high or low quality of the music. This is indicated by a bitrate. This number indicates how much information is processed per second.
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With Spotify, this is currently 24 kbit per second for low sound quality. With ‘normal’ you listen to music with a bitrate of 96 kbit / s. Then there is ‘high’ with 160 kbit / s and ‘very high’ with 320 kbit / s. With Spotify HiFi, the streaming service goes above that. That means that there is virtually no loss of information when streaming the music. Everything can be heard.
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A bitrate that is too high is not always interesting for streaming services, because this extra data has to come from somewhere. If you stream with a mobile internet connection, the data bundle is as empty if you stream at ‘very high’ all day long.
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Other services
Both Tidal and Deezer also offer a HiFi subscription with so-called losslessaudio. That means there is no loss in quality due to compression. Deezer HiFi costs EUR 14.99 per month. Tidal HiFi is 19.99 euros per month. You can also take out a lossless ‘Platinum’ subscription to Primephonic, a classical music service from Amsterdam, for 14.99 euros per month. It is not yet known what Spotify HiFi will cost.
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You will not find that quickly at major streaming services losslessaudio. Apple Music, Spotify’s main competitor, allows users to listen to music with a maximum bitrate of 256 kbit / s. That is even less than ‘very high’ on Spotify. YouTube Music and SoundCloud also go up to a maximum of 256 kbit / s. Pandora dangles underneath with a maximum of 192 kbit / s.
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With the free versions of the streaming services, you listen in lower quality as standard. For example, the free version of Deezer lets you stream with a maximum of 128 kbit / s. The free version of Spotify goes ‘high’ at the most, so 160 kbit / s.
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Has lossless-audio feel like?
There is still debate about whether losslessaudio really makes sense to the average consumer. There is no question that with losslessaudio can be heard. The audio is fuller and deeper. But whether you also hear the difference in practice? Not everyone agrees on this.
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On this website for example you can do a test, in which you have to try the difference between lossless and 320 kbit / s. For the average consumer who listens in public transport with earplugs, or who plays the music at home on small speakers, losslessaudio make little difference in practice. These more expensive subscriptions are meant for the real audiophiles.
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