Spotify HiFi subscription: release date, price and details

In 2021, Spotify announced a new Hi-Fi subscription for higher quality audio – one of the most requested features from customers. However, the feature was postponed indefinitely.

After years of little news, rumors are now emerging about the new plan. According to Bloomberg, the launch will take place later this year. It’s said to be an add-on for existing users and will cost around $5 extra per month for improved audio, as well as new tools and features for creating playlists and managing libraries.

Spotify recently raised prices in the US and UK, a typical move for streaming services before a shakeup in plans or the introduction of a big new feature that we’ve seen from Max, Disney+ and Netflix.

That means Spotify Premium subscription users with the lossless audio add-on will pay £16.99/$16.99 per month. That’s more expensive than other rivals like Deezer and Tidal, which cost £11.99/$11.99 and £10.99/$10.99 respectively.

We don’t yet know if this add-on will be available to users on the Spotify free subscription, which is ad-supported.

The original announcement claimed that “Premium subscribers in select markets will be able to improve their sound quality”, although we assume this will start in major countries such as the UK and US.

Spotify HiFi is long overdue, as many other competing music streaming services offer an equivalent subscription, including Tidal, Amazon Music, Qobuz and Deezer. Some even go higher than CD quality (16bit/44kHz) with Hi-Res up to 24bit/192kHz.

Previously, Spotify’s highest quality was 320kbps compressed via the Premium plan, but HiFi would bring things to a lossless CD-quality audio format available on your ‘device and Spotify Connect-compatible speakers’.

Which speakers will support Spotify HiFi remains to be seen, but the company said in 2021 that it was “working with some of the largest speaker manufacturers in the world to make Spotify HiFi accessible to as many fans as possible through Spotify Connect.”

“High quality audio means more information. There are things you won’t hear if you don’t have a good sound system. It’s very important because we make that music [we] wants to be heard the way it was made,” Billie Eilish said during the original announcement.