Will Spotify CD quality be here before 2022?

Brown Bottle

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It's looking unlikely. I'm not particularly bothered, Spotify is just a means to hear new stuff for me and background music. If streaming formed part of my critical listening I'd subscribe elsewhere. 

Cheers BB

 
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MartinC

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Part of me sort of hopes Spotify don't to make it more likely that Qobuz has a long term future.

 

ziggy

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This has gone on so long I can't see Spotify bringing in a CD quality tier.  They will be aware that the vast majority of their subscribers would not be able to detect a difference on the devices they listen on.  Their selling point is the interface and catalogue.  Furthermore, with other platforms lowering prices a CD quality  tier would need to be no more expensive than their premium tier.

 
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StingRay

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Not that bothered as long I can use Qobuz or Tidal. Why keep saying they are going to launch cd quality and then nothing happens for years, that just annoys people. Tidal have revamped their services, with cd now £10 and a free mp3 level in US. Deezer does not get a mention but has free and cd levels. Rivals have been cutting their prices. The WHF article is quite poor, IMO, I never use Spotify unless it's not on other services, I use Qobuz or Tidal or Deezer first. I have Spotify free service as well as Deezer. I certainly won't be paying £10 pm for Spotify mp3 when I can get cd and HR for the same amount elsewhere, I tried Spotify for 1 month, did not get on with the sound quality. Qobuz is my first choice and if you do the annual sub is only 83p pm more than Spotify. Tidal is the same price as Spotify but has cd quality, Amazon has cd and HR and is £10 pm or £8 if you have Prime.

 

MartinC

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I'd still avoid Tidal due to MQA personally, which I've yet to see proved isn't still a problem with their alleged CD quality tier.

 

Sonofsun

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I read somewhere (months back) that Sony was the stumbling block, they wanted more cash to use their catalogue. My Tidal free trial just ended so I have just taken up a Spotify 3 monther. The Spotify app is so much better and so are the recommendations, let's hope it happens early next year. Can't say I notice much difference sound quality wise.

 

MGTOW

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I have been running the free trial on Qoboz, sound quality is pretty good, excellent really.

But the interface! On Bluos on my Node 2i it is bloody awful. Will cancels in the next few days, back to Spotify probably.

I know, but a good rip on Spotify often sounds very good, close to CD quality, it is the crap rips that really piss me off, there are just too many of them.

I am really not asking a lot, I can live without Hi-Res, a lot of the stuff I listen to is older so no real advantage, just give me a decent rip, how hard can it be?

 
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bluedroog

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Spotify is frustrating in its delays with CD quality, however I’m prepared to wait it out. I tried Qobuz a long time ago and more recently Tidal and Deezer, none of them come close to Spotify for their algorithms in my opinion. Track radio is so good for understanding the mood of music I want and discovering new stuff, I really missed that when I left Spotify. I’m a Masters student too, so the price is good. 

 
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JANDL100

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Part of me sort of hopes Spotify don't to make it more likely that Qobuz has a long term future.
Hmm, yes, that's a good point. The current higher rez services would struggle even more. 

I started out my streaming adventure with Tidal about 6 years ago. Flip flopped around with Qobuz and occasionally Deezer and some others. Tidal wrote themselves off for me when they somehow managed to screw up the track order of so many classical albums, that's really annoying! 

Then I tried Spotify on the insistent reccie of a friend - I was reluctant even to try it... its about a quarter of the bitrate of the other services. Obviously it won't sound as good. 

I was surprisingly unsure after listening for a while.  Being aware that expectation bias is a strong thing I rigged up a blind comparison scheme between Qobuz and Spotify using remote control amplifier input switching. Wow, I was a bit shocked. I did hear differences but I didn't have a consistent preference and quite often preferred Spotify! 

I think one of the main differences between the streaming services is tonal quality. Tidal being the brightest, Qobuz in the middle, and Spotify furthest from Tidal. Which makes it a system synergy and personal preference thing. 

So I've been with Spotify Premium for 3 or so years now and I'm absolutely fine with it. Nope, I don't need or even want a higher bitrate source than the current Spotify offering. 

 
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flak monkey

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Honestly not bothered by Spotify "CD" quality. I mainly use it as background music, or on my phone, in the car etc. For everything else I use Tidal, which has a bigger catalogue than Qobuz and sounds decent enough to my ears through the various Roon end points around the house. Even through my main rig it still sounds respectable enough to me.

 

MGTOW

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Hmm, yes, that's a good point. The current higher rez services would struggle even more. 

I started out my streaming adventure with Tidal about 6 years ago. Flip flopped around with Qobuz and occasionally Deezer and some others. Tidal wrote themselves off for me when they somehow managed to screw up the track order of so many classical albums, that's really annoying! 

Then I tried Spotify on the insistent reccie of a friend - I was reluctant even to try it... its about a quarter of the bitrate of the other services. Obviously it won't sound as good. 

I was surprisingly unsure after listening for a while.  Being aware that expectation bias is a strong thing I rigged up a blind comparison scheme between Qobuz and Spotify using remote control amplifier input switching. Wow, I was a bit shocked. I did hear differences but I didn't have a consistent preference and quite often preferred Spotify! 

I think one of the main differences between the streaming services is tonal quality. Tidal being the brightest, Qobuz in the middle, and Spotify furthest from Tidal. Which makes it a system synergy and personal preference thing. 

So I've been with Spotify Premium for 3 or so years now and I'm absolutely fine with it. Nope, I don't need or even want a higher bitrate source than the current Spotify offering. 
Agreed. Much of the time Spotify is very close to CD quality and for me, the differences are not that important musically.

But that is 'much' of the time, not 'all' of the time, I still found that there are some very poor rips of some albums or tracks that sound poor, broken even, that I find annoying, happens too often, the good rips are fine, happy with those.

That said I have not been using Spotify for a while now, spells with Tidal and now Qobuz, maybe it has improved. I shall be rejoining Spotify in a week or two, be interesting to see if it is any better than I remember.

 

2010*zuma

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nope... the audiophile demand is so small I doubt it wouldn't even register a minor blip on any charts. 

I mean what sort of crazy narcistic lunatic would even consider to care about the difference in sound quality between recording A and recording B...

 
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timmytiger

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Agreed. Much of the time Spotify is very close to CD quality and for me, the differences are not that important musically.

But that is 'much' of the time, not 'all' of the time, I still found that there are some very poor rips of some albums or tracks that sound poor, broken even, that I find annoying, happens too often, the good rips are fine, happy with those.

That said I have not been using Spotify for a while now, spells with Tidal and now Qobuz, maybe it has improved. I shall be rejoining Spotify in a week or two, be interesting to see if it is any better than I remember.
I think some of the time they get what they can, better versions arrive later.

The whole business of licensing for Spotify and the streamers must be an eternal nightmare.

Can be worth rooting through the different versions in an artist search.

Well recorded 320k can be very good but i'm over 60 with a bit of tinnitus so glad to still be hearing anything.

 

Fantasque

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I have been a Spotify Premium customer for about 5 years now and decided to try Tidal on a free trial. First problem is the app doesn’t work on my aged iPad so had to use my iPhone 8 instead which is a problem for me as my eyesight isn’t great and really need a larger screen. Sound quality, as you would expect, is good but in my opinion not hugely better than Spotify. Decided to try Qobuz, had same problem only works on my iPhone but sadly does not support my streamer so that was a short foray! So back to Spotify for me, if and when CD quality comes I will probably upgrade to it but not really bothered one way or the other. Let’s see what 2022 brings.

 

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