Last February, Spotify announced that “music in CD-quality, lossless audio format” would be coming to the music streaming platform. We’ve been waiting for Spotify HiFi ever since, and there were finally some signs of life this week. According to one user that recently canceled Spotify Premium to switch to Apple Music (via 9to5Mac), the service sent him a survey that mentioned a new, unannounced subscription tier dubbed “Platinum.”
Here’s what 9to5Mac reader Drew told the site about the survey he received:
The survey shared with me details of Spotify’s upcoming subscription tiers available and asked if I would switch back “in the next 30 days” for one of these features.
Spotify listed three plans on the survey: Free, Individual, and Platinum. Spotify says that the Platinum plan has everything the Individual plan offers, plus HiFi, Studio Sound, Headphone Tuner, Audio Insights, Library Pro, Playlist Pro, and limited-ad Spotify podcasts.
The survey shows that the plan will cost $19.99 — double the price of the Individual plan. To put that into perspective, Apple brought Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio to Apple Music at no additional cost in May 2021. An individual Apple Music plan also costs $9.99.
Lossless audio alone isn’t going to convince many users to spend twice as much on Spotify. The company is clearly banking on the other benefits of the Platinum plan drawing in music fans. That said, we don’t know what those perks are. We could take some educated guesses, but there’s no mention of Library Pro, Playlist Pro, or Stereo Sound anywhere on the Spotify website. Therefore, we have no idea if they’re worth $20 a month.
Given the language of the survey, we might not have to wait long to find out. Spotify seemed to suggest that the Platinum tier would be available within the next 30 days. Still, it’s just a survey, and there’s a chance we’ll never see any of these features.
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