I guess if you’re wed to Spotify then some of the wed might welcome this. If you’re just into music then I’m not sure it’s relevant. Far too late to be compelling until such time they up their game on multiple fronts.
As far as I’m concerned (Qobuz user) it probably doesn’t change much anytime soon. For me to ditch Qobuz it ought to be integrated in Audirvāna first.
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I think it’s relevant that every music streaming platform does at least have CD quality that existed 40 years ago. I believe that this subforum is about streaming audio, not about how much someone is into music. Let’s keep it technical.
Say what? The forum is about streaming. Your post was about streaming. My response was about streaming.
Ergo I do not think Spotify have a winning proposition as yet. That/my point was entirely on point.
If your interest is solely music and you wanted CD quality you’d have left (or never used) there long ago as there’s little in their catalogue which can’t be obtained on other platforms. This isn’t going to persuade you otherwise.
If you’ve a Premium subscriber then it’s a “nice to have” but the kinds of people who have survived on Premium this long without it aren’t really going to care.
Difficult to see then at first glance that this will attract new subscribers and especially hard to see how it will pull in users of other platforms.
I use Qobuz and Tidal. Whilst it was interesting to see Qobuz suddenly throw a three year deal out there, the reason I’ll be staying with both is their catalogue and the fact some hi-res is superior to CD quality. The lack of video and podcast content on Qobuz remains a major selling point.
Whilst I agree that Spotify payments to creatives are appalling, thd reality is that consumers have already voted with their feet and ears on that one and it’s not a winning strategy for the likes of Qobuz.
This will absolutely take share from the likes of Tidal and Qobuz. That said, there’s not much share to take from them.
And make no mistake, this is a feature from Spotify and not capability - they’ve already established their platform as the clear leader in the market.
So if the SQ is truly CD quality or better, I can drop my Tidal subscription. As I subscribe to both, there’s no incremental revenue coming from me, but I can see people ditching the others and switching to Spotify. I’d be very nervous if I were Qobuz or Tidal.
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Would a FW update be required for the 1st gen streamers? If they can stream up to 16/44 already, wouldn’t Spotify lossless automatically downsample to that?
16/44 is enough. Imho. 
Not me. I prefer to support a streaming service that pays artists better, but even if that were not the case, I’d have to pay more for no guarantee of improvement and, from the figures, probably a reduction in SQ. Not much temptation there.
Roger
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I’ve merged the two Spotify Lossless threads - I think we only need the one for the moment.
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Well I guess this topic is going to last a while.
My biggest question is whether the old platform will also handle the Spotify Hifi tier.
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Surely it doesn’t matter if it’s lossless if the source file is poor. Apple do not reveal the file info, whereas Roon/Tidal do. I wonder if Spotify will be transparent?
No, not everybody. There are still solid use cases for either - Qobuz especially with their catalogue of classical music that doesn’t exist elsewhere.
But some will and it will dent an already struggling Tidal.
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So was this answered. Do the streamers need a firmware update for lossless Spotify Connect to work? I remember hearing years ago another streamer said they already had lossless enabled and just waiting for Spotify to turn on their end. Well finally going to happen. Also 24/48 should be just fine with gaining access to larger catalog.
It’s a good question and I don’t know the answer (yet). However, knowing just how difficult it was trying to get the new Internet Radio service to work with the resource available on the old legacy platform, if SL needs more resource then I have my doubts. But maybe it doesn’t need anything new to work? Let’s see what Naim say when they announce something.
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The royalty per stream is not because Qobuz wants to pay artist more. It’s because with higher volume (user base) comes lower royalty and Spotify is HUGE in comparison to Qobuz. If you have same number of streams on Spotify and Qobuz then yes then you will get more money from Qobuz. But given the huge user base on Spotify you will likely get more streams vs Qobuz and earn more money. It comes down to how big your target audience is and such. A small jazz band will likely earn more on Qobuz but Taylor swift would not.
Chat GPT
Market Size vs. Niche
- Spotify has over 600+ million users (with ~40% paying).
- Qobuz has a much smaller, audiophile-focused base — but those users pay more and stream less volume than Spotify listeners.
→ The per-stream payout is higher because fewer streams divide the revenue.
Payout Model (Pro Rata vs. User-Centric)
- Both Spotify and Qobuz currently use a pro rata model (all subscription money goes into one pool, then divided by share of streams).
- But since Qobuz users stream less music overall (not 24/7 background listening like Spotify), each play gets a larger slice.
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I’ve pinged Naim support re: NDS (Old platform) support / firmware update requirement.
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Looks like even on latest streaming platform using Naim HE, the bitrate is controlled by the Focal & Naim app and not the Spotify app. When using Spotify Connect, their apps quality settings are dimmed. Focal app only shows normal, high, and extreme. These tier don’t even match the current tiers before lossless rollout. There is no extreme but listed as very high. So looks like definitely need a firmware update to get lossless once it’s rolled out to everyone. Maybe can get that in less than 9 months it took to get Tidal hires. believe Qobuz Connect was release in timely manner.
Imagine a world where setting 320bps on our Naim devices actually meant play highest available quality. 
Hi,
Spotify lossless has been sitting dormant in the Naim firmware for the last 18 months and we’re on one of the latest Spotify firmware. Once Spotify enable accounts in the various countries it’s ready to go on your Naim.
On products that are ready and waiting:
Uniti Atom
Uniti Atom HE
Uniti Star
Uniti Nova
Uniti Nova PE
ND5XS2
NDX2
ND555
NSC222
NSS333
Muso2
Muso QB2
Focal Diva
Focal Mezza
On the Naim/Focal platform it natively does 44.1 and 48kHz 24bit streams (we switch DAC audio clock rates). If Spotify supported higher your products are ready to handle it.
Unfortunately the older green screen products and muso1 can’t get it as Spotify no longer generate library builds for that platform. Apologies, but out of our control.
Regards
Steve
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Thanks Steve. Does that mean Spotify ceases to work w 1st gen streamers, or just that they won’t be able to receive lossless content?