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Spotify could launch its HiFi lossless audio tier any day now

Simon Cohen
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In February, Spotify announced its ambitions to join the increasingly popular lossless audio space with a new subscription tier called Spotify HiFi. At the time, the streaming music company was silent regarding pricing or the potential timing for the new tier’s debut, but a recently spotted video suggests it could happen imminently.

Late last week, Reddit user Nickx000x posted a video to the Spotify subreddit that appears to show an introductory animation for Spotify HiFi. The video — spotted first by WhatHiFi? — looks like it’s designed to take Spotify mobile app users through the quick process of understanding what Spotify HiFi is, how it works, and how to know if they’re actually getting the higher-quality lossless audio stream on their device.

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The video of the animation has since been uploaded to YouTube. Digital Trends reached out to our Spotify contacts to verify if the animation was theirs. They would not confirm or deny, saying only, “All information about Spotify’s plans for HiFi can be found on our blog, For the Record. We don’t have any additional details to share at this time.”

Spotify HiFi Onboarding Preview

The animation explains that when you’re listening to a lossless track, you should see a bright green “HiFi” logo appear at the bottom right corner of the playback screen. This is a fairly common practice among streaming music services that offer more than one tier of audio quality. Tidal notes when you’re listening to its lossless tracks, and also marks its “Master” audio tracks the same way. Apple Music indicates if you’re listening to lossless, hi-res lossless, or Dolby Atmos.

However, the Spotify HiFi introduction goes further, with a checklist to help you understand why that green logo might not be lit up when you’re listening. It also reminds folks that in order to get Spotify HiFi on a wireless speaker from your phone, you’ll need to use Spotify Connect as opposed to Bluetooth. Though the animation doesn’t explain why, it’s because Bluetooth simply doesn’t have the bandwidth to transmit lossless audio at CD quality, which is what Spotify HiFi will provide when listening at its highest setting.

Assuming the animation is legit, which it certainly appears to be, it could mean that Spotify will launch its HiFi tier very shortly, possibly before the end of the summer.

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Simon Cohen
Simon Cohen
Contributing Editor, A/V
Simon Cohen covers a variety of consumer technologies, but has a special interest in audio and video products, like…
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