Apple’s AirPods Max are a cornerstone of Apple’s premium content+hardware ecosystem, which includes Apple Music spatial audio (photo: MaxWdhs)
After years of investing in lossless and spatial audio, Apple Music and Amazon Music have cemented premium audio as a key part of their offerings. But the market leader, Spotify, is still plotting its entry into high-definition and spatial audio, raising questions about the streaming landscape’s trajectory in 2024 and beyond.
Nearly three years have passed since Apple Music and Amazon Music announced (on the same day) far-reaching premium audio expansions, extending both to spatial audio and lossless formats. Almost simultaneously, Spotify users uncovered a HiFi icon on select versions of the app. And with the Stockholm-based platform having revealed plans earlier in 2021 to adopt high-fidelity audio, a launch seemed imminent.
As frustrated users frequently lament on social media, though, Spotify has yet to move forward with these plans. Inversely, Apple Music and Amazon Music are framing premium audio as a major reason to choose their services. “Hear sound all around,” reads central text on Apple Music’s subscription landing page, with the Amazon Music Unlimited counterpart encouraging listeners to “experience spatial audio” and enjoy “the HD difference.”
But a distinction in the approaches to premium audio – an all-in strategy on the one hand versus, at least to date, no strategy whatsoever on the other – suggests a significant competitive differentiator between the services. Following uncertainty about the interest in and reach of lossless and spatial audio, it’s become abundantly clear that higher-quality listening options are here to stay.
Report Table of Contents
I. The Premium Audio Imbalance: Apple & Amazon vs. Spotify
II. Graph: Premium Audio Today: A Quick Look At Who Offers What (and for How Much)
III. Spotify’s ‘Supremium’ Tier: The Long-Rumored Package At a Glance
IV. Spotify Playing Catch-Up With Premium and Spatial Audio – Will Premium Audio Be a Gamechanger for Apple Music and Amazon Music in 2024?
V. By the Dates: A Timeline of Premium Audio’s Streaming Integration
VI. Source Documentation
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