“We’re going to do it in a way where it makes sense for us”: Spotify Supremium is on its way

After years of rumours, Spotify’s Supremium subscription looks set to arrive “later this year” according to reports.

It’s been coming for a long time. Spotify first announced that it was looking into setting up a ‘CD quality streaming’ premium service as far back as 2021. Then last year it was announced that it was imminent.

After a presentation, Spotify co-president Gustav Soderstrom told The Verge website that Spotify “are going to do it [HiFi], but we’re going to do it in a way where it makes sense for us and for our listeners. The industry changed and we had to adapt.”

Now according to Bloomberg the service will arrive later this year and will be priced at “at least $5 more per month”. It looks likely that it will be an add-on for existing customers.

Last year the Independent reported that the new service would retail at $19.99 per month. However, if Supremium involves an extra $5 then that would bump it to around the $16.99 level.

It’s a move that many would argue is long overdue, as the one of the downsides regarding the streaming service remains its sound quality compared to rival streaming platforms, let alone old skool physical formats such as CD and vinyl.

Currently, when you listen to music on Spotify, the stream is compressed to make better use of the available bandwidth. This means that bits of the music file are thrown away in an attempt to reduce the amount of data being sent. Spotify Hi-Fi would offer CD-quality or lossless streaming.

In other Spotify-related news, the streaming behemoth last week released its European Loud and Clear data report, which details royalty payments across the continent and follows on from their global report’s publication in March; so far they are the only major streamer to release any information regarding artist remuneration.

The report showed that European artists generated nearly €1.5 billion in royalties in 2023, an increase of 16% from 2022 and more than three times the level that was generated in 2017.

Spotify also claimed that more than 15,000 European artists earned over €10,000 per year from the platform and that more than 25,000 earned over €5,000 or more, “enabling artists to live off their art.”

Many artists would doubtless claim that €5,000 per year is hardly enough to live off in 2024. Spotify’s royalty rate currently averages between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream.