Four and a half years ago, in February 2021, Spotify announced a new streaming tier. Called Spotify HiFi, it was supposed to offer high-quality, lossless audio, getting Spotify up to par with competitors such as Apple Music and Tidal.
However, Spotify HiFi never came. After multiple delays and name changes, Spotify gave us…well, nothing except vague promises that some sort of premium Spotify tier, which would include lossless audio, was still in the works.
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Well, now we have some new clues that Spotify is actually working on it. The folks from Spotify customization app Spicetify (via The Verge) have found mentions of “lossless” in parts of user interface of Spotify’s desktop app. For example, in the Settings, there’s a mention of lossless as one of the streaming quality options, as well as in the sidebar with options for connected devices.
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Additionally, MacRumors analyst Aaron found a lot of mentions of lossless in the latest Spotify beta for iOS.
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As far as actual quality and format, Spotify mentions commonly used FLAC format, with quality being “up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz.”
For a primer on lossless audio, check out Mashable’s guide; the short version is that it means better-sounding audio if you have equipment (speakers, headphones) that supports it.
So does this mean that lossless is really, truly, actually coming to Spotify? Well, it’s a strong hint, but it’s worth remembering that mentions of lossless audio were found in Spotify’s app back in 2021, and nothing came out of that. Let’s hope this time is different.
