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Spotify HiFi Is Coming… But as an Add-On?

Andy G.
Andy G.
Andy G.
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Andy is the Senior Audio Writer at Headphonesty. With over 14 years of professional writing experience, Andy has honed her skills in detailing the nuances of sound, ensuring readers receive both depth and clarity in her pieces. For three years, she has been an instrumental contributor to Headphonesty, delving into...
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Lossless streaming is spotted in the Spotify app of some users.
Lossless streaming is spotted in the Spotify app of some users.

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Not what we expected, but we’ll take it!

Instead of Supremium, Spotify users may soon have access to high-quality lossless audio, AI-powered playlists, and more through a new “Music Pro” add-on. These insights came from recent findings in the company’s Android app code in the alpha version 8.9.32.328.

In This Article
In This Article

Unpacking Spotify’s Music Pro

Spotify HiFi was expected to be launched alongside the Supremium plan at the end of 2023,.
Spotify HiFi was expected to be launched alongside the Supremium plan at the end of 2023,.

According to recent findings in Spotify’s Android app code, Spotify’s Supremium plan is most probably turning into an add-on feature named “Music Pro”.

This was found by a Reddit user and computer science student, Hypixely, in the alpha version 8.9.32.328 of the Spotify app. Here, he discovered that Spotify removed mentions of Supremium from its app code, and replaced them with new strings referring to a new feature called Music Pro.

“Supremium is dead. Unless Spotify is playing with us, there is not going to be a Supremium plan anymore. So in its place, welcome Music Pro.” he says.

Music Pro retains many of Supremium’s intended features such as:

  • 24-bit/44.1 kHz lossless music (FLAC)
  • AI-driven playlist creation
  • 30 hours of audiobook listening per month
  • Enhanced playlist customization options such as sorting by BPM or danceability.

However, the add-on will also provide headphone optimization technology for specific models, including AirPods.

Code strings on the Spotify app referring to 'Music Pro' and 'Add-on.' (From: Reddit/Hypixely)
Code strings on the Spotify app referring to ‘Music Pro’ and ‘Add-on.’ (From: Reddit/Hypixely)

Other users also uncovered potential lossless downloading capabilities.

“I found A LOT of references to Lossless on Spotify’s Web Player in the developer tools. I am not sure if it was talked about before but Lossless downloading will be supported. Holy hell there is a lot of stuff on the web player about it,” remarked Sjoseph21.

But instead of a separate plan, like Supremium, it’s seemingly packaged as an additional feature that existing users can choose to add to their current plan.

This, of course, is expected to cost a bit more on top of the regular Spotify Premium subscription but the actual price is yet to be revealed.

Since 2023, reports have claimed that Spotify has been planning a new Supremium plan that will offer HiFi. The price point was hinted to be around US$19.99, but it has not seen the light of day ever since.

More Evidence of Music Pro

Chris Messina's post about discovering lossless audio on Spotify. (From: Threads/Chris)
Chris Messina’s post about discovering lossless audio on Spotify. (From: Threads/Chris)

Chris Messina, the inventor of the hashtag, also supported the news about Spotify Music Pro.

In a Threads post, he recently shared finding a ‘lossless’ option from the Connect menu.

Here, you can see that users can choose to stream music in lossless quality of up to 1,441 kbps. This is a lot higher than the 320 kbps max stream quality that Spotify is currently offering to all users.

Based on his responses, Chris claims that he can tell that Spotify uses the FLAC format for its lossless setting.

File streaming quality options on Spotify, showing lossless. (From: Threads/Chris)
File streaming quality options on Spotify, showing lossless. (From: Threads/Chris)

Yet, of course, this hasn’t been rolled out to all users, as it’s probably still in the A/B tests, among many other features.

For reference, 1,441 kbps is still lower than what other streaming platforms offer. For example, both Tidal and Apple Music offer up to 9216 kbps. You’ll need some great equipment and trained ears to differentiate these, though.

Why Is Spotify Hi-Fi Taking So Long?

In February 2021, Spotify announced Hi-Fi, promising Premium users an upgrade in sound quality within the year. However, the company delayed the release until 2023 and later planned to include Hi-Fi in the Supremium plan, which now also appears to have been discontinued.

One Redditor said that money was a reason for the delay of Hi-Fi on Spotify. (From: Reddit)
One Redditor said that money was a reason for the delay of Hi-Fi on Spotify. (From: Reddit)

Some say that Apple Music and Amazon Music offering lossless audio at no additional cost disrupted Spotify’s pricing strategy for Hi-Fi.

“I think the delay really comes down to money—if and how much they can charge for HiFi without losing users and remaining competitive, and if/whether they’ll share some of the added revenue from HiFi with artists,” glamaz0n_bitch shared on Reddit.

Daniel Ek himself hinted that the delay was due to a licensing issue during a 2022 earnings meeting.

“Many of the features that we talk about and especially that’s related to music ends up into licensing. So I can’t really announce any specifics on this other than to say that we’re in constant dialogue with our partners to bring this to market,” Ek said.

Spotify’s CEO made his thoughts about music licensing known before, insinuating that some practices were outdated.

In a 2013 SXSW interview, Ek stated, “Licensing music territory by territory is not at all how it should work, it seems to me. If I license a song, that license should be valid all around the world.”
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