- Spotify has signed a new agreement with Warner Music Group
- Which could include an long-awaited high fidelity level for super-phanatics and audiophiles
- However, competitive services have begun to offer high -resolution audio as standard
Spotify is about to become more complicated, if a new announcement of the music transmission service is something to happen.
On February 6, Spotify and Warner Music Group announced a new association agreement to “offer new fans experiences, a deeper catalog of music and videos, subscription levels paid and differentiated content packages.”
The agreement is likely to see even more music and video content added to the 80,000 Spotify track library, with support for a new premium level ‘Superfan’ that is expected to be launched in 2025.
While this can finally give Spotify subscribers access to high resolution audio, something that Tidal and Apple Music have offered for years, also represents another complication in the increasingly extensive content offer of Spotify.
A Spotify strength has been its simplicity: it has not divided its user base between several price options, which are not ‘free’ and ‘paid’, and casual users do not have to deal with whether they choose Hi-Fi Audio Audio Smart phones speakers and budget headphones are unable to recreate anyway.
Spotify also does not need to discover other content services in the subscription point, as with the group offers of Apple One or Amazon Prime. And if you stay with the free level, it is very easy to choose a song and start playing.
But, as the service has shot in its reach and ambition, looking for high profile podcastes and extended video content, Spotify has only become more complicated. Now, in some countries, there are separate levels without access to audiobooks, along with several options for individuals and families, and a new level Superfan will only extend the list of options and packages offered.
Cash acquisition
I am also irritated by the suggestion of another payment wall for high resolution music. In these days, both Apple Music and Tidal include high -resolution audio as part of their basic package, which does not seem to be Spotify strategy here: the highest quality audio is something that must be improved, instead of something to attract To users to the platform first.
Since Spotify significantly offers less money for transmission ($ 0.00437) to artists who Apple ($ 0.0056-0.0078) or Tidal ($ 0.013), much less Qobuz (a luxurious $ 0.022), it is difficult to imagine those well-mononized superfans Funnel More Cash more effective to artists instead of Spotify coffers.
But Spotify’s market position means that it is unlikely to be punished for selling a feature included by default in the standard plans of its competitors.
Spotify is he Dominant music transmission service, helped by a free transmission level and backed by advertisements that carries its subscriber count to more than 650 million, many hundred times larger than Apple Music or Tidal. Spotify is simply the place where most people listen to music today.
I am happy that Spotify users who have been waiting for too much time for high resolution audio to reach the service. But this new strategy would only make me wonder why I have not yet moved to another platform.
