Then you'll be able to listen to Spotify HiFi on your streaming device and your Spotify Connect enabled devices, although many of these may require an update to enable the new service.

(unless their competition's no-extra-charge for lossless forces Spotify to add HiFi to the Premium tier). You'll need to upgrade from Spotify Premium to Spotify HiFi - and the cost of this is not yet clear, but it's likely to be a tier above their current Premium plan. Are we one of them? Previously their staged rollouts have focused on the US and Europe first of all, but we're crossing fingers for a global launch. Spotify have said it's launching in 'select markets' first. Will it launch in Australia at the same time as Europe / USA? The plan at this stage is for Spotify HiFi to be CD quality, lossless audio - so not hi-res audio but still a significant step up from the lossy MP3 compression Spotify currently uses. At present their MP3 streaming maxes out at 320kbps, which is fine for casual listening but those of us with quality audio systems want to get as much out of them as possible - hence the excitement! Spotify HiFi delivers CD-quality sound through the use of lossless codecs. We're not holding our breath, but stay tuned here for updates when they occur. Spotify are hosting their annual Stream On event on Maand there has been speculation that Spotify HiFi could be announced then. So will it happen at all? Or will Spotify listeners miss out on lossless because of a business (read 'profit') decision? Only time will tell. We can't help thinking that Apple Music and Amazon Music both adding lossless audio at no extra cost has put a spanner in the works for Spotify - nixing their plans to make Spotify HiFi a step above Premium at an extra cost.

We will of course update you here when we can.Ģ) a comment from the CEO in February 2022 noting that Spotify HiFi has been delayed by licensing negotiations.

Spotify lossless audio