We’re closing in on two years since Spotify first announced its supposed HiFi tier featuring lossless audio. Earlier this year, the company mentioned that it has no timing details for it yet. But now, a former subscriber of all sources provides a clue as to the way the company plans to roll out a feature that’s nearly two years late.
9to5Mac claims that a reader shared a survey that the streaming service sent to him after he cancelled his premium subscription of 10 years. Said survey had details of an upcoming plan called the Spotify Platinum HiFi plan, with a list of features that the plan is said to come with. It also asked if the former subscriber is interested is re-subscribing for one of these features.
But what exactly are these said features that will be bundled with this so-called Spotify Platinum HiFi plan? On the top of the list is, as the name suggests, HiFi audio, the much promised but not delivered feature. Beyond that, the supposed Platinum plan will also have features like Studio Sound, Headphone Tuner, Audio Insights, Library Pro, Playlist Pro, and limited-ad podcasts.
From the list, the first four items sound liked they could be interesting. It remains to be seen what exactly is the difference between HiFi and Studio Sound. Headphone Tuner sounds pretty self explanatory, but it remains to be seen if Spotify can make it work properly with the wide range of audio hardware out there in the market. It’s also unclear what Audio Insights will entail, but on the surface it may be related to the previous feature.
On the flip side though, one can only imagine what features can be added to the library and playlist features that would make it worthy of the Pro label. And more importantly, if they are worthy of being locked behind an even higher paywall. From the language of the survey, if the company truly intends to reveal this new tier within the next 30 days, that’s probably when the additional features will be explained in further detail.
Finally, we come to the price of this supposed Spotify HiFi Platinum plan. The survey sent to 9to5Mac indicates a price of US$19.99, effectively double that of the basic US$9.99 subscription. Locally, an individual subscription costs RM15.90, If we were to assume that Platinum will also be double the price here, then it will cost RM31.90 per month, assuming it even makes its way here.
(Source: 9to5Mac)
