![]() ![]() ![]() Will we see Spotify integrated by Roon? No. There is little doubt that the blast radius of such a service will be felt right across the audiophile space, most obviously via Spotify Connect. The Swedish service also covers far more of the globe than Tidal and (especially) Qobuz, the latter supplying only a dozen countries with Canada, Scandinavia and Australia/NZ notable black spots.Īnd perhaps most important of all, Spotify has the brand recognition that – Apple aside – rivals cannot touch. With 286 million subscribers, it’s the world’s number one music streaming service, six times the size of Amazon Music and a giant when sat next to rivals like Tidal and Qobuz (who don’t publish subscriber numbers) and Deezer (who do: 7 million). Reaching far beyond audiophile niche interests, Spotify’s announcement puts the issue of better streaming source quality in front of mainstream listeners. ![]() In 2021, CD-quality streams still form the backbone of every ‘hi-res’ streaming service: over 90% of Tidal and Qobuz’s ‘hifi’ libraries stream at a maximum of 16-bit/44.1kHz and go no higher. However, hi-res fanciers need only peek over their garden wall to see that their field of digital audio interest is a niche within a niche. We don’t know yet if ‘HiFi’ means that a small percentage of the Spotify HiFi library will also be made available to stream at rates higher than 16-bit/44.1kHz, as per Amazon HD, Tidal Hi-Fi or Qobuz. As we’ve argued before, a lossless streaming service effectively puts a CD store in your house (or on your smartphone). CD-quality streaming will see data rates rise to anything between 700kbps and 1400kbps. It is happening.Ĭurrently, Spotify’s Ogg Vorbis lossy-encoded streams top out at 320kbps. Side note: cynics complaining that we have heard all of this before ( and we have) are reminded that this time the news originates from Spotify’s own newsroom. The new ‘HiFi’ tier will offer CD-quality streaming to all Spotify apps – smartphone and desktop – as well as Spotify Connect-able audio devices. As bombs landing on the hi-fi/audiophile world go, they don’t get much bigger than this: Spotify is set to launch a lossless streaming tier sometime in 2021. ![]()
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