A Reddit user was asked by audio streaming giant Spotify if they wanted to upgrade to a Platinum plan at $19.99 per month. This offer would, among other things, make it possible to enjoy lossless high-definition sound.
It was when he wanted to cancel his Spotify Premium subscription to switch to Apple Music that Reddit user Nearlymind was offered to take a survey. He shared the screenshot of one of the questions, which shows a new, as yet unannounced offering from the Swedish company.
Real plan or simple test?
This Reddit user is surprised to share this screenshot of Spotify, which looks like it’s introducing a whole new subscription tier. Called Platinum (or platinum in French), this one would cost $10 more than a standard subscription. We would find in this subscription at $ 19.99: Hi-fi sound, features called Studio Sound, Headphone Tuner, Audio Insight, Library Pro (probably more extensive management of the library) and Playlist Pro. It is also mentioned that the offer would limit advertisements on Spotify Original Podcasts.
The Verge reached out to the user behind the screenshot and the user told them they had multiple versions of the Platinum offer, one of which featured audiobooks, added to Spotify since last September. For now, the investigation has not appeared again and no one knows if it was a test of the company, an error or a real plan that would be formalized very soon.
The Hi-fi repoints the tip of its nose
Beyond this new offer that appeared furtively, it is his proposal for a Hi-Fi sound who made this whole thing take off. Indeed, the arrival of high-quality sound was announced by Spotify as early as February 2021 for release at the end of last year. But the company remained very confidential, even simply stopping giving news on this feature.
Meanwhile, competitor Apple Music has made available its Lossless lossless audio compression technology to all users at no additional cost. The technology offers resolutions from 16 bit/444.1 kHz (CD quality) to 24 bit/192 kHz (high definition quality). Some whisper that this is what would have slowed down the deployment of HiFi at Spotify, which was planning to charge a surplus.