- Multiple references to Lossless were found in the desktop app's latest code
- Better than CD quality at "up to 24-bit/44.1kHz"
- No official announcement has been made just yet
Sometimes promises take a while to be delivered, such as Elon Musk's promises of full self-driving (FSD) in Tesla cars. And in all honesty, I'd filed Spotify Hi-Fi, Spotify Supremium or Spotify Music Pro alongside that, missions to Mars and the Hyperloop as exciting things announced and then never delivered. But it looks like I'm about to be proved wrong on that count.
Newly unearthed code suggests that Spotify's lossless tier is imminent, or at least it's close enough to imminent for it to be baked into the latest Spotify desktop app.
Could Spotify Hi-Fi arrive in the same way that Tesla's 2018 mission to Mars... didn't?
Spotify lossless audio: what we know so far
According to tech expert Chris Messina, there are multiple references to "Lossless" with a capital L in the latest code for the Spotify desktop app.
The references largely refer to promotional messages inside the app – "The best way to listen in Lossless is with Spotify Connect" – and alerts such as "we're sorry, this track isn't in Lossless yet" or "Looks like your internet connection is having a hard time supporting Lossless right now."
One message indicates the quality the service streams at, promising the "best sound quality on Spotify for music in up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz.”
A similar message was found by Reddit user bendotlc, who said they found the message “Say hello to the best sound quality on Spotify. Listen to high-fidelity music in up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz" and that the feature was already in the app but currently disabled. Techcrunch has confirmed that that claim appears to be true.
Also notable is the message "The best way to listen in Lossless is Spotify Connect," because Apple's AirPlay 2 wireless streaming doesn't support higher-res codecs, so iPhone users might be able to become more acquainted with Spotify's own wireless option.
Spotify has neither confirmed nor denied anything, but it looks like all the pieces are falling into place; earlier this year Spotify signed new deals with the biggest record labels that seem to help prepare for the higher-quality tier's launch. It's expected to include not just higher-quality streaming but also music remixing and AI features too.
