Spotify would be charging extra for what competitors already provide
After years of silence following a 2021 announcement, Spotify appears to be nearing the launch of a high-fidelity audio tier — a moment that reflects the streaming industry's slow reckoning with the gap between convenience and quality. Code unearthed within the app's architecture reveals a service called 'Spotify Supremium,' priced at $19.99 per month, that would bundle lossless 24-bit audio with AI-driven playlist tools and audiobook access. The leak arrives in a landscape where rivals already offer lossless sound as a baseline, raising a quiet but consequential question about what listeners believe their ears are worth.
- After two years of unexplained silence, buried app code has suddenly made Spotify's long-promised HiFi ambitions feel imminent and real.
- The specificity of the leaked details — pricing, feature names, plan structures — signals a product close to launch, not a distant experiment.
- Spotify is asking $19.99 a month for lossless audio that Apple Music and Amazon Music already hand to subscribers at no extra charge, creating an immediate credibility problem.
- AI playlist generation, smart track ordering by tempo and key, and a 'Soundcheck' taste-analysis feature suggest Spotify is betting that software intelligence can justify the premium price gap.
- The company's years-long delay traced back to fraught negotiations with record labels, and the emergence of this code implies those conversations have finally reached workable ground.
- Whether consumers will pay more for what competitors give away free could determine not just Supremium's fate, but how the entire streaming industry structures its tiers going forward.
Spotify's long-promised high-fidelity audio service may finally be taking shape. A Reddit user excavating the app's underlying code surfaced detailed, specific language describing a premium tier called 'Spotify Supremium' — not vague placeholders, but the kind of granular implementation that suggests a product nearing launch. The Verge subsequently reported the findings.
What the code describes is substantial: lossless 24-bit audio free of compression artifacts, AI-generated playlists, thirty hours of monthly audiobook listening, and a suite of listening tools. Those tools include library filtering by mood or genre, playlist reordering by tempo and danceability, algorithm-driven 'smart order' sequencing using key and tempo data, smooth song transitions via preset cue points, and a feature called 'Soundcheck' that analyzes listening habits to define a user's sonic identity. The tier would mirror Spotify's existing Premium structure with individual, duo, and family plans, priced at $19.99 per month.
The leak closes a long chapter of uncertainty. Spotify announced a HiFi service in 2021, then went quiet for years — a silence widely attributed to difficult negotiations with record labels over streaming rights. The specificity of the code now suggests those talks have progressed far enough for engineers to build the actual product.
The competitive context, however, is uncomfortable. Apple Music and Amazon Music Unlimited already include lossless audio in their standard subscriptions. Spotify is preparing to charge a premium for something rivals offer by default, betting that AI features and audiobook access will tip the scales. Whether that calculation holds — and whether listeners will pay extra for quality they can get elsewhere for less — may quietly redraw the boundaries of how music streaming is priced and packaged across the industry.
Spotify's long-promised high-fidelity audio service may finally be arriving. Code discovered buried inside the Spotify app reveals the shape of what the company is calling 'Spotify Supremium'—a premium tier that would deliver studio-quality sound at $19.99 per month, along with a suite of AI-powered features that hint at where music streaming is heading.
The discovery came from a Reddit user who excavated the app's underlying code and shared findings that were later reported by The Verge. What emerged was not vague placeholder text but detailed, specific language describing features and pricing—the kind of granular implementation that suggests a product nearing launch rather than an early concept. The leak breaks down what subscribers would actually receive: lossless audio encoded at 24-bit quality with no compression artifacts, the ability to generate playlists using artificial intelligence, thirty hours of audiobook listening each month, and a range of customization tools for organizing and sequencing music.
Those customization options reveal how Spotify is thinking about the listening experience. Users would be able to filter their libraries by mood, activity, or genre. They could reorder playlists by tempo or danceability, or hand the job to an algorithm that would arrange tracks using key and tempo data to create what Spotify calls 'smart order.' The service would include smooth transitions between songs, using preset cue points to eliminate the jarring silence between tracks. There's also 'Soundcheck,' a feature that analyzes your listening patterns and tells you what mix of sounds defines your taste.
The Supremium tier would come in three flavors: individual, duo, and family plans, mirroring the structure Spotify already uses for its standard Premium offering. The $19.99 monthly price, while potentially a placeholder, aligns with rumors that have circulated for years about what a high-fidelity tier might cost.
This leak arrives at the end of a long wait. Spotify first announced plans for a HiFi service in 2021, then went silent. Years passed with no updates, leading many to assume the project had been shelved. The delay stemmed from negotiations with record labels—the companies that own the rights to the music Spotify streams and that have leverage over what the platform can offer. Those conversations appear to have finally borne fruit, or at least are close enough to completion that Spotify's engineers are building the actual product.
The timing also matters because Spotify would be charging extra for something its competitors already provide. Apple Music includes lossless audio as part of its standard subscription. Amazon Music Unlimited does the same. Spotify's move to monetize high-fidelity audio separately suggests the company believes enough listeners will pay the premium for the feature, or that the AI playlist tools and audiobook allowance will justify the additional cost. Whether that bet pays off remains an open question—and it could reshape how the entire music streaming industry thinks about pricing and feature tiers.
Spotify declined to comment on the leak, as it does with all unannounced services. But the specificity of the code suggests the company is preparing to make Supremium official soon.
Notable Quotes
Spotify intends to charge extra for something Apple Music and Amazon Music Unlimited users get as part of their standard subscriptions— TechRadar reporting on competitive positioning
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why did it take Spotify so long to get here? They've been talking about HiFi since 2021.
Record labels. They control the rights to the music, and they had leverage in negotiations. Spotify needed permission to offer lossless audio, essentially.
But Apple and Amazon already offer it. Why would Spotify need special permission?
Good question. The licensing terms might be different, or Spotify's negotiating position was weaker. Either way, they're now charging separately for what competitors bundle in.
So they're betting people will pay $19.99 extra just for better sound quality?
Not just that. There's AI playlists, audiobooks, all these mixing tools. But yes, lossless audio is the headline feature, and that's the risky part.
What does the AI playlist thing actually do?
It generates playlists for you, and it can arrange songs by tempo, key, danceability—things that make the listening flow better. It's trying to make curation feel less random.
And if this works, what changes?
Everything gets more expensive. If people accept paying extra for audio quality, the whole industry follows. Tiers get more granular, features get more specialized.