Spotify Superpremium on the way? Maybe šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļø

Audio Gear Talk Music Services
28

The latest leak seems to suggest the tier will include 24 bit content, as to the sample rates there wasnā€™t any mention of what the cap is.

On the price, they will be adding some features that music fans do care about (again according to leaks). Things like a focus equivalent, you can cut your library by genre, mood, tempo and other properties.

Full listening data, taking what people already use third party tools to track (Last.fm) and building it into the app.

When you combine those additions, plus the best streaming connectivity (Spotify Connect) and the most well integrated platform of any service, to me it seems like a lot of audiophiles might be interested in paper. Particularly when you consider how rock solid their app is.

The added cherry on top is that if you care at all about podcasts and audiobooks, they are thrown in too.

There are a few things that I donā€™t see get mentioned a lot when it comes to audiophile needs on Qobuz and tidal + Roon. Reliability and integrity.

Qobuz and tidal suffer from music being removed and reloaded, effectively creating holes in your library (you have to go and re add the album). Now if your library is small, itā€™s no big deal but if it is large (like an audiophiles) that is a problem.

Bugs and stability issues plagues Roon, Qobuz and tidal. To be clear this isnā€™t a fair fight, Spotify is massive but itā€™s the reality. Iā€™ve seen a ridiculous number of threads on Reddit of the tidal app just being totally unreliable playback wise (particularly with downloads), Qobuz has a limitation on iOS that means if you use the genre filter on your library it will only show and play the first 300 items unless you scroll to the end of the list, at which point it will load another 300. These are just a few examples but the point is that even as music fanatics, these apps have pretty heavy drawbacks in areas that we care about, which Spotify does not.

All this is to try and highlight that Spotifys price (in my opinion) may not be inflated if you value stability, library integrity and integrations.

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29

Has Spotify eliminated their library size limit ?

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30

As far as I can see your library size is unlimited.

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31

Yet it still fails to actually be for music collectors in my opinion. Itā€™s just too playlist focus. My current home page doesnā€™t have one album on it just lots of playlists and then your scroll and have more and more taken up with video thumbnails, Itā€™s a horrible experience.

Itā€™s release day today and I canā€™t see a single new release album on my home page!!! Sorry itā€™s juts not for a serious collector as far as I am concerned, both Tidal and Qobuz are way better at this side and are still focused more on albums and not throw away playlists.

The app can be as stable as you lik, and have the largest collection there is, but the experience really isnā€™t there, it doesnā€™t offer me what I am after from a music app. I have never even impressed with their algorithms they repeat and come up with same suggestions way too often, itā€™s almost like itā€™s using Valence. I canā€™t say I have had any issues with stability of Tidal or Qobuz apps myself.

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32

Ok I do take your points and will wait and see what happens with Spotify and I guess what they are offering may be interesting to others, just not to me. I just want a wide selection of good quality music in classic rock, Blues and some jazz, Bluegrass, Folk and classical and I seem to get that fine on Qobuz. I find no problems with unreliability either on Qobuz or Roon and as I use Roon I almost never use Qobuz o/s. So basically I donā€™t want to pay almost double what Iā€™m paying now for features I donā€™t need or want. Also of course Spotify is not in Roon so that rules it out straight away for me. Of course for other people that donā€™t use Roon then it might be good, especially if the subscribe to Tidal which I know is having problems and is the same price for the top tier, guess that will come down to the quality that spotify end up offering

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33

You are bang on with the home page, itā€™s certainly playlist focused (although there are at least 3 home lines for me that have album recommendations).

On the releases though, Spotify has the most reliable new release mechanism for me:

IMG_0598
IMG_05981290Ɨ2557 264 KB

That being said, you are right the home page (outside of the new releases tracker) is very much playlist focused.

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34

Are there any Qobuz users who listed to electronic, rock, reggae, folk - rather than the classical genre for which Qobuz is better known?
How does Qobuz compare with Tidal in this respect?

35

Very similar. All the electro/synth I am listening to is available on both.

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36

Hi Mike_Betts,

Qobuz and Tidal have little to no difference in their catalogue. With a lot of effort, you can find something in one that the other doesnā€™t have. Qobuz certainly has its strength in classical and jazz, but everything else is there too. Hip hop and rap may not be as prominent, but they are there.
Qobuz has perhaps the most extensive catalogue of HiRes recordings in these areas.
The differences lie more in the features. Tidal has videos and personally generated playlists. Qobuz does not have these. On the other hand, the search in Qobuz is outstanding, even better than in Roon. Above all, it is able to find names that are not spelled correctly.
I personally find the UI of Qobuz better than that of Tidal, but thatā€™s a matter of taste.

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37

I listen to a wide range of genres using Qobuz, I donā€™t listen to much classical in comparison to all others. Qobuz has got a lot better over the last few years compared to what it was but can still be missing some albums by some artists but its not as common as it was.

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38

I never thought I would like playlist listening but Spotify allows me to discover artists I dont know about by listening to their playlists
Then I add a bunch of albums to the music services I use based on their playlists and nobody makes them better

39

There is also this section if you want album recommendations:

https://open.spotify.com/genre/0JQ5DAtOnAEpjOgUKwXyxj?si=-nN9Dz2aTqGfHrAhhvVH0A

40

I listen to all your genres, plus a fair bit of classical and jazz. Thereā€™s not a lot in it TBH, although Iā€™d say the Tidal catalog was marginally better overall - there are albums I have looked for that are on Tidal but not Qobuz, but never the other way around as far as I can remember. Tidalā€™s new music day list is far superior to that of Qobuz, but I really like the availability of digital booklets in Qobuz for a lot of more recent classical albums (plus a few from other genres), and of course you can buy downloads from Qobuz (although not for every release by any means). Thatā€™s why I still currently have both subs.

Oh, and (puts on body armour) there is no discernable (to my ears) overall difference in sound quality between them.

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41

I am a Qobuz user with Roon and really enjoy how it work alongside my local library.

I tried Tidal back when it was pushing all MQA so I bounced to Qobuz, but now that Tidal also offers HiRez FLAC as an alternative, I think I stay for deals I can get on album purchases.

I do love how Spotifyā€™s UI works, but Iā€™m not sure Iā€™ll upgrade to the ā€œSuperemiumā€ sub. Maybe to at least try it.

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42

Well, I just made the switch, Tidal to Qobuz.
Itā€™s 12.50 euros a month compared to 19.99.
And there were maybe only two albums that Qobuz didnā€™t have.
Used Soundiz to transfer my playlists.
Had to add the Qobuz version of all albums, but TBH a lot I didnā€™t transfer over as I never listened to them anyway.
So now Iā€™m a Spotify and Qobuz double subscriber :smile:

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43

Since Tidal ended their Best Buy partnership, I doubt highly I will subscribe to them . Qobuz for Home
and Apple for everywhere else.

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44

Still no news on Spotify and lossless audio. I really wonder what is holding them back.

45

Just give them another 2 years :wink:

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46

A lack of any real incentive.

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47

This! If they offer it at 19.99 month I think there will be limited demand to pay that with Apple and Amazon about half the price.