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Spotify reportedly plotting HD audio offer

By | Published on Thursday 2 March 2017

Spotify

Spotify is seemingly prepping a high quality audio version of its service, because that worked out brilliantly for Tidal, didn’t it?

A bunch of Redditers have been redditing about what seems to be some product testing occurring on the Spotify platform. They have posted screen grabs of in-app notifications promoting the new Spotify Hifi service, though different screen grabs seem to show slightly different price points and specifications – some include physical product upsell – hence the thinking that Spotify is still playing with the proposition.

Tidal, before it was Tidal, was the first to really play with the idea of charging twice the subscription price for higher quality audio, and what was then known as WIMP initially developed the Tidal brand specifically for that element of its service.

It’s a relatively simple way to generate more revenue from existing customers, though to date the sign-up for higher cost higher quality streams has been relatively modest. It would be interesting to see if Spotify could do a better job of upselling the HD service, given it is starting with a much bigger userbase.

Many people argue that the streaming music market needs to offer a wider range of price points – both cheaper and more expensive than the current standard of £10 a month – in order to appeal to a wider range of paying customers. Both SoundCloud and Amazon are now experimenting with lower-price options that offer less content or less functionality, and there are rumours Spotify is also considering what a £5 a month package might look like, in addition to possibly launching premium premium.

For its part, Spotify told The Verge: “We are always testing new products and offers but have no news to share at this time”.



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