While Spotify may have been one of the first music streaming apps to introduce AI capabilities with features based on it, there’s still the Lossless streaming feature the App hasn’t got since almost 2.5 years after it first got announced. A new leak sheds light on how Spotify is working on the HiFi paid add-on for lossless streaming of music, a feature apps like Tidal and Apple Music already offer.
Posted by a user on Reddit (via Android Authority), Spotify seems to be testing Spotify HiFi, or “Enhanced Listening,” as the leak suggests Spotify may have changed its naming scheme. The post has a number of screenshots showing how the service would work and what all options would be available to the consumer once the add-on goes live in the app
The first set of screenshots are from Spotify on desktop, where the music streaming service will also be able to perform a compatibility check, letting you know the compatibility status with of the device you are listening on, your connection, and your internet bandwidth. There are also some advisories present, suggesting users to download the music in lossless quality so they can listen in that quality even when offline, and that listening to Lossless over Bluetooth could affect the quality of the music.
Spotify currently streams music at a 320kbps rate but with HiFi coming, one can go up to 2,117kbps, with as much as 15.9MB of data being consumed per minute. Spotify also mentions that even 24-bit lossless is available on limited songs that can be played via the FLAC audio format.
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The leaked screenshots from the mobile app hint that the feature introduction prompts will tell users that they can stream wirelessly in “up to 24-bit” on compatible devices through Spotify Connect. In addition, a “Lossless” label will be shown to indicate that lossless streaming is in progress.
It’s still unclear what Spotify will finally end up calling the plan, a HiFi add-on, a Supremium plan as leaked once before, or just lossless. Whatever the case may be, the leak shows proof that Spotify could be in the final stages of completion with the feature but who knows what could happen considering the streaming service has already delayed the feature announcement once by a couple of years already.