I really like Qobuz, best sounding streaming service I tested. I’m not planning on giving it up but a hi res Spotify might change my mind. I assume that lossless will be available for family accounts. Anyone heard differently?
Yes anyone with premium and it’s already been confirmed family members have gotten lossless option.
My guess it Spotify might try to add a hires tier later on with extra features. Like the rumored pro account. Need to see if hires really make much difference. I always use the highest level in Qobuz but have never really tested if enjoy it anymore than CD quality.
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I am away from home on vacation for a few weeks and I’ve turned off my HIFI system, so I cannot check if my Linn Klimax DSM/3 network streamer supports lossless Spotify or not, does anyone here know?
Lucky you,having a vacation and being away for a few weeks.
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Spotify lossless is of course a big improvement. But if I compare it to native Qobuz I think the difference is still big enough to stick to Qobuz. Compare e.g Joni Mitchell’s If from Joni’s Jazz Open Qobuz
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And still paying artist worse than other platforms, the Richard Osman podcast said you’d need 567000 streams a month to make minimum wage. Hopefully Tidal are still doing better.
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Btw, some reports have been saying that Spotify Connect drops 24 bit music to 16 bit for Connect to hardware? I am in Singapore (on vacation)where lossless spotify has not been released, so I can’t really verify this info.Is that true?
Don’t really know where the break even point will be, but the more listening is being done on a streaming service, the lower the revenue will become per play. I read somewhere that this is because they (almost all) pay pro rata as I understand.
For example: When 80% of Spotify users move away to let’s say Qobuz making that the number one streaming service, then the payment from Spotify will go up amd that of Qobuz will go down.
Don’t know wether it’s true and how it works exactly but if that’s true than the debate shouldn’t be so much about the payment I guess…
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Hi @sean86
Re: Spotify Connect dropping to 16bit
I can’t speak for other manufacturers solutions, but on Naim it’s genuine 24bit lossless and we keep it bit perfect through the playback engine.
Where the twist comes with Spotify is that various labels master for Spotify which may or may not be an improvement, see: Loudness normalization on Spotify - Spotify
Streaming services like Qobuz are a bit more purist and the version you stream is often 1st generation master, rather than remastered for a services ‘quirks’ that are more intended for car/boom boxes/cheap headphones.
Like all the streaming services, it’s quite.a lottery on what you get, especially on older albums that originally were mastered for cd or lp.
Best
Steve
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Thanks, interesting information!
Oh…That’s nice to know. I never new that tracks can be mastered differently per streaming service. I was always wondering why tracks can sound different, depending on the streaming service. This probably explains that.
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My 3 month trial of quobuz is nearly over. After endless A/B switching i can’t discern any appreciable difference from its hires and spotify. (I’m not all that surprised tbh having some career experience around compression technologies. That in itself is a bias.) Of course either my system or my ears may be limiting I guess. My speakers are old, I’m 61, I have no power cable upgrades etc blabla… yet.
There is a hint that my cd might have an edge. But I can’t rule out listener bias.
Anyway…
For me therefore the spotify upgrade is very welcome to remove that nagging fomo.
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I generally find the hires tracks on Tidal to be smoother (less rough edged) with more sparkle and detail. Not a huge difference but IMHO worthwhile. According to this forum Qobuz is slightly better.
In regards to loudness normalization, doesn’t this note apply to Naim?
Note: The web player and 3rd-party devices (like TVs or speakers) don’t use loudness normalization. Playback behavior may vary depending on your device and whether it supports compressed or lossless audio.
Seems thru their own app, there is no way to avoid it even on lossless p. But it’s just metadata the player uses to adjust, not the file itself. So if Naim only process the raw file, we should be good. It’s just album to album we’d need to manual adjust our volume. The original master’s intent is not lost.
It is strange that within the app they don’t have a way to shut this off completely.
Oh I do see the paragraph about mastering tips. Seems like this is just a suggestion if you don’t want Spotify to apply their own loudness adjustments after. So your saying if label sent special master just for Spotify then we could be getting a worse version. But it sounds like in practice labels just have one version distributed to all the streamers, so don’t think this is a real issue.
Hi @iamoneagwin
On the Naim solutions there is no loudness normalization by default, so it comes out as the mastering engineered intended.
Best
Steve
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From Spotify’s website:
GROWING THE PIE
On Our $10 Billion Milestone and a Decade of Getting the World to Value Music
JANUARY 28, 2025
In 2014, the music industry reached a low point when global recorded music revenues hit $13 billion. Spotify’s annual contribution at the time was around $1 billion, with around 15 million paying subscribers.
In 2024, Spotify alone paid out a record $10 billion to the music industry—totaling nearly $60 billion since our founding.
For a lot of people, those numbers might go in one ear and out the other. And they’d perhaps ask why Spotify keeps shouting about it.
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Bands need to make better music. It’s not like just because you have albums on Spotify you deserve a lot of money. It’s always been the few that can have music for a living. In the past you had to pass label persons saying yes/no to just make a record. Today anyone can upload music to Spotify and have a 700 000 000 audience at the press of a button. Mind blowing IMO.
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If anything Spotify sounds quieter to me .. maybe even better - doesn’t have the top end but that’s better if you have too bright speakers
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I’ve been told its only really better if you have high en equipment, we’ll see if it would work in my ford puma st line x with the B&O stereo sound inside
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I have just signed up for premium here in Canada, it cost me $7.11 per month, for 2 months, then it goes up to $12.70+tax/ month after that. I already use Qobuz high res, so plan on comparing the two over the next couple of months.
Spotify is cheaper, and the UI is much better but sound is the most important thing to me.
First impressions are it is quite good out of the gates.
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