Spotify has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years, from a provider of free and premium music streaming to an all-in-one audio service that also offers podcasts and audiobooks, with multiple subscriptions to cater to different users.
While the streaming giant has recently introduced a cheaper, audiobook-free option and upped the price of existing tiers, one highly anticipated feature remains elusive: Spotify’s high-quality audio subscription.
Promised to music lovers in 2021, the lossless audio tier has yet to materialise, leaving fans wondering if it will ever see the light of day. Now, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has confirmed that the company is still working on a “deluxe” tier that will cost more than Spotify Premium.
Speaking on the company’s earnings call last night (July 23), Ek said the plan is “to offer a much better version of Spotify, so think something… like $5 above the current premium tier… so it’s probably around a $17 or $18 price point.”
Ek described the new offering as a “sort of a deluxe version of Spotify that has all of the benefits that the normal Spotify version has but a lot more control, a lot higher quality across the board, and some other things that I’m not ready to talk about just yet.”
However, he added that it was still in its “early days,” and didn’t offer a timeline for its release, meaning patient users will have to wait a tad longer for the new subscription plan.
Spotify Supremium price
A pair of leaks have revealed the new Supremium” tier’s alleged price, features, and logo.
Based on Ek’s comments, the new tier should cost roughly the same as a Spotify Duo subscription in the UK (£17 per month), which is the plan that lets two people use the app at the same time. The prices mentioned by Ek match Bloomberg’s predictions about the tier costing $5 more than the Premium rate.
Spotify Supremium features
As expected, the new plan could finally see Spotify catching up to Apple Music by offering CD-quality music streams that sound great pumping out of premium speakers and headphones.
Spotify has previously experimented with so-called lossless audio, but has held off from officially launching the feature. News of the tier will be music to the ears of audiophiles.
Seeing as many of its rivals already offer high-quality audio, Spotify is supposedly throwing in a bunch of extra benefits to justify the price of its new subscription. These include the ability to make playlists with artificial intelligence and filter your library by mood, activity, and genre.
Tech veteran-turned investor Chris Messina recently uncovered the new Supremium tier’s logo, along with more features that corroborate the previous leak.
AI-generated playlists
Spotify recently introduced an AI-powered playlist to its app that is presided over by a virtual DJ. It also launched a smart shuffle mode earlier this year that adds personalised recommendations to match the vibe of your playlists.
Next up, it could let Supremium users play with its AI tech to create playlists. Earlier in October, Messina spotted references to “AI playlists” and “playlists based on your prompts” in the Spotify app’s code.
In theory, users could become prolific playlist savants by simply typing in instructions, similar to the way people already use AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney to get answers and generate images.
Mixing tools
The new plan will also purportedly feature advanced mixing tools that let you customise the order of a playlist by the tempo and danceability of the tracks. That sounds ideal for a party setlist that goes from the dancefloor to the chill-out session. Or, for when you’re heading to the gym and want the tunes to build up with your workout routine.
In addition, Spotify is said to be bundling in new transitions between tracks that sound more intuitive than the current crossfade option.
Listening data and time capsules
Plus, a new soundcheck feature and reams of listening data could let you dig deeper into your streaming habits and discover what mix of sounds is “uniquely you”. The new additions sound like they’re aimed at fans of Spotify’s annual Wrapped recaps.
Messina also mentioned something called “Your Sound Capsule” which he suggested could be akin to Spotify’s Playlist in a Bottle feature. The last of those allowed users to create their very own music time capsule to open next year. It was unclear if the feature was a one-off when it briefly popped up in January, but it sounds like Spotify could turn it into a full-fledged Supremium perk.
Free audiobooks
To sweeten the deal, Spotify will also apparently offer 20-30 hours of audiobook listening time every month. That’s more than the 15 hours paying users currently get.
What is lossless audio?
Despite the extra perks, Spotify supremium’s main draw is still lossless audio. For the uninitiated, lossless files retain more information to produce faithful copies of original songs.
Technically speaking, lossless audio is equal to CD-quality music, which means it has a resolution of at least 16 bits (or 1,411 kbps) and a sample rate of 44.1kHz.
Will Spotify Supremium have lossless audio?
According to Messina, Spotify Supremium will offer 24-bit lossless audio. By comparison, the service currently offers a maximum audio bitrate of 320kbps. Although this still makes it miles better than MP3s, which also compress the information in a song file to save on storage space, it lags behind lossless and other higher resolution formats.
Apple, meanwhile, categorises its lossless streams as between 16-bit/44.1kHz and 24-bit/48kHz, and its ‘Hi-Res Lossless’ streams as anything over 24-bit/48kHz. Elsewhere, Tidal offers a premium subscription with 24-bit/192kHz audio for £20 per month.
Back in 2017, Spotify briefly tested CD-quality audio by offering some users in the US access to lossless music for an extra $7.50 (£6.13) per month.
