It Looks Like Spotify’s High-Resolution “Supremium” Tier Is Finally Coming
Even though Spotify is the market leader when it comes to streaming audio, it’s always been lacking the high-resolution tier of competitors Apple Music, Amazon Music and Tidal. Even though the company announced its introduction was close way back in 2021, it looks like it’s “Supremium” tier is finally coming to fruition.
A number of reports have put the target date in October of this year, but no price has been set. In fact, as far as I can tell, there hasn’t been an official announcement yet – only leaks to the press. For instance, What Hi-Fi? posted a rather detailed article, although it didn’t call it Supremium. Bloomberg seems to have the best source for information, and it’s the one that most other posts have quoted.
In March, Spotify co-president Gustav Söderström confirmed to The Verge that its hi-res tier was indeed on the way. “We announced it, but then the industry changed for a bunch of reasons,” Söderström said. “We are going to do it, but we’re going to do it in a way where it makes sense for us and for our listeners. The industry changed and we had to adapt.”
It’s All In The Price
Of course, how Supremium is priced will always be the issue. Speculation is that it will be about twice the standard subscription price, as $19.95 and $20.95 are the prices most frequently cited. That’s on par with the other services, so the next question is exactly what do you get for that price? The speculation is that Supremium will offer CD quality, or 44.1kHz/16 bit or 1411kbps, which is an improvement on its current highest streaming rate of 320kbps (the higher the streaming rate, the higher the audio quality).
Just to put it in perspective, Apple Music offers three tiers of higher resolution audio: CD quality (16-bit/44.1kHz), Apple Music Lossless (24-bit/48kHz), and Hi-Res Lossless (up to 24-bit/192kHz). It should be noted that Tidal goes all the way up to 9216kbps. It’s also been rumored that Supremium will finally make Dolby Atmos mixes available as well.
But Will They Come?
Of course, it still comes down to whether users care enough about higher-quality audio to pay double for it. Personally I think it comes down to genre, as there are some (metal, hip hop) that won’t benefit enough for the average user to hear, at least in the majority of cases. And when pop music continues to be squeezed to within an inch of its life thanks to the sophisticated limiting tools at every mixer’s disposal, it will be a stretch for the average pop music listener to make the leap to the more expensive tier. That said, genres like Americana and orchestral will benefit greatly from the increased quality.
Still, Supremium is a step in the right direction. Spotify has had the capability for hi-res music for some time now but couldn’t seem to pull the trigger to launch it. Eventually it will become the norm in streaming, so its time for the company to finally commit to making the leap.
