Spotify HiFi / Platinum - when?

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Grand Master

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Still TBD.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/technology/what-happened-to-spotify-hifi/ar-AA15J2BS

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/spotify-hifi-delayed-and-theres-no-word-on-when-it-will-finally-arrive

Grand Master

devHead

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I don't know what is going on internally with Spotify and their Hifi offering, but there are so many other very good ones out there currently.  For example,

  1. Tidal : I have a Tidal Hifi account, and while not subscribing to their much pricier MASTER subscription, their HiFi one is only $10 a month.  A huge selection of music, and while they originally used to feature a lot of hip-hop music on their start page, if you do not listen to that genre, you won't have it on your home page any more.  I particularly like their Daily Discovery playlist, where they have ~ 7 songs, some you might know, some you don't, but that are based on your musical tastes. 
  2. Qobuz : I tried out Qobuz for a month, since I have purchased digital music from them in the past.  The sound quality of their service (for lossless audio) is superb; a little brighter than what is on Tidal I find.  It costs more though; if you don't purchase the full year subscription, the monthly cost is $13 a month.
  3. Amazon Music HD : This is a great option if you already have an Amazon Prime subscription, since it has the lowest cost at only $8 a month.  They have a vast selection of music in HD audio.  The only drawback is their standalone app.  It's a little wonky compared to Tidal / Spotify / Qobuz.  

If you're running LInux, Tidal and Qobuz are good because Qobuz can play HD audio through their web-app player.  Tidal has a Flatpak app (not created by Tidal themselves) that has HiFi capability.  Amazon Music HD has no HD app offering for Linux, although the Arch User Repository might have something.

Grand Master

Steven P. Administrators

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On 04/01/2023 at 18:24, SnoopZ said:

Tidal Hifi costs me only 47 pence a month when signing up from Argentina using a VPN, normal UK price is £9.99.

That's a great tip, thanks.

The same tip still works for YouTube Premium, although it is a bit more expensive at £1.80/month.

 

On 04/01/2023 at 17:40, devHead said:

If you're running LInux, Tidal and Qobuz are good because Qobuz can play HD audio through their web-app player.  Tidal has a Flatpak app (not created by Tidal themselves) that has HiFi capability.  Amazon Music HD has no HD app offering for Linux, although the Arch User Repository might have something.

I suspect a lot of people don't know this but the Windows Tidal app only plays in HiFi if it is in Exclusive mode.

SNAG-0005.png

SNAG-0006.png

The same option also supports HiFi over Bluetooth 5.0 (for Alexa and what-not) to get the Tidal skill working via Alexa, you must have your main Amazon account with devices set to United States. I have a Kindle Oasis, and it's no bother for me because I prefer all my eBooks in English anyway (I live in The Netherlands).

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Grand Master

devHead

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 04/01/2023 at 11:28, Steven P. said:

I suspect a lot of people don't know this but the Windows Tidal app only plays in HiFi if it is in Exclusive mode.

SNAG-0005.png

SNAG-0006.png

 

Actually, Stephen, what Tidal is notifying you of is that using Exclusive mode is only useful when you are streaming in HiFi or Master playback.  Otherwise, switching to exclusive mode (if you're not streaming in HiFi or Master) isn't going to have any effect on the audio quality.  It's not saying that you need to use Exclusive Mode to get Hifi or Master, just that Exclusive Mode is only applicable when you're listening in Hifi or Master playback.  Does that make sense?
This also explains why that option is not available in the Linux Tidal-hifi app, since Linux audio (ALSA) uses Exclusive Mode at all times.

Edited by devHead
One small addition.
Mentor

Neonix1

Posted
Posted (edited)

Spotify was gonna launch lossless/hifi at extra cost.
After Apple made their lossless free, it kinda messed up Spotify's entire plan of tiered subscriptions.
They know they can't charge extra for it when Apple doesn't, and they know they will loose money on if it they include it in the base price (higher infrastructure, bandwith and processing costs).
I guess they're just choosing to do nothing, cause it doesn't benefit THEM if they simply launch it at no extra cost. Typical selfish companies.

Grand Master

Steven P. Administrators

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On 04/01/2023 at 22:13, Neonix1 said:

Spotify was gonna launch lossless/hifi at extra cost.
After Apple made their lossless free, it kinda messed up Spotify's entire plan of tiered subscriptions.
They know they can't charge extra for it when Apple doesn't, and they know they will loose money on if it they include it in the base price (higher infrastructure, bandwith and processing costs).
I guess they're just choosing to do nothing, cause it doesn't benefit THEM if they simply launch it at no extra cost. Typical selfish companies.

Tidal pays more to the artist and offers more in quality than Spotify, it's a no brainer.

Also Spotify is spending millions on people like Joe Rogan and non music-related ventures, which made the decision easier to switch.

Grand Master

Michael Scrip

Posted
Posted
On 04/01/2023 at 18:21, Steven P. said:

Also Spotify is spending millions on people like Joe Rogan and non music-related ventures...


That's because Spotify is trying everything to make money.  Streaming music... as it turns out... is not a very profitable business.

Basically it costs Spotify money every time someone streams a song.  Even though people are paying a subscription on premium accounts... and Spotify makes ad revenue on free accounts... they still lose money because of music licensing fees.

I remember reading about Spotify's financials a few years ago.  Let's say they had $1.1 billion in revenue in a quarter.  Sound good, right?

But their expenses were $1.2 billion.  Oof.

So yeah... Spotify is trying all sorts of things to get people to stop listening to music... and start listening to podcasts or audiobooks or anything where they don't have to pay such huge music licensing fees.

Which is comical because I hear Spotify actually pays some of the lowest licensing fees to artists and labels.

🤔

Mentor

PaulATMOS

Posted
Posted
On 05/01/2023 at 07:21, Steven P. said:

Tidal pays more to the artist and offers more in quality than Spotify, it's a no brainer.

Also Spotify is spending millions on people like Joe Rogan and non music-related ventures, which made the decision easier to switch.

Joe Rogan’s podcast is the most popular podcast available. I understand not everyone agrees with everything he says but it’s been a big success for Spotify.

Grand Master

Steven P. Administrators

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On 04/01/2023 at 21:50, devHead said:

Actually, Stephen, what Tidal is notifying you of is that using Exclusive mode is only useful when you are streaming in HiFi or Master playback.  Otherwise, switching to exclusive mode (if you're not streaming in HiFi or Master) isn't going to have any effect on the audio quality.  It's not saying that you need to use Exclusive Mode to get Hifi or Master, just that Exclusive Mode is only applicable when you're listening in Hifi or Master playback.  Does that make sense?
This also explains why that option is not available in the Linux Tidal-hifi app, since Linux audio (ALSA) uses Exclusive Mode at all times.

It does have some effect 

For users with a digital device, like me.. it completely bypasses Windows and is able to use the DAC and send the proper intended signal and bitrate.

Windows allows for some tweaking of the bitrate and sound, and exclusive mode bypasses all of this. For example the bitrate output can be lower for shared mode in the Sound settings.

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