Recent news report that Spotify's Premium subscription tier is finally rolling out CD resolution streaming. Until now the best the service offered was 'very high'. That's not Swahili but Swedish for 320kbps vs the 1'411kbps of 16/44.1kHz Redbook. Anyone equating a 75% loss of data with very high quality is clearly in the junk business. Here, eat shit.
With a long-ago subscription still ticking over in the ethers like an abandoned space satellite, I downloaded the latest Spotify desktop app, renewed my password which had been disabled for disuse and logged in. Did my Irish location fall under this new umbrella of munificence to disseminate no longer homogenized and denatured musical nutrition?
Not yet. I'm still slumming it at 25 out of 100. I'm still expected to consume empty musical calories in the glorified 'high quality' wrapper.
When my Qobuz Sublime subscription offers up to 24/96 never less than 16/44.1, comparing albums is child's play. Anyone who can't hear the difference either isn't trying very hard and/or has a very basic system. Nothing wrong if that's the case. Just don't equate it with reality for everyone.
But it isn't just the sound per se. Far worse in my estimation is the lack of—absent a better word—nourishment. It makes listening feel hollow. I frankly derive very little pleasure from my rebooted Spotify Premium subscription. That's a shame when I find the GUI excellent.
I'm thus looking forward to Ireland getting enrolled in Spotify's promised library-wide upgrade to non-lossy CD quality streaming. Until then my paid subscription is useless for anything other than scouting new music. That works because Spotify has content which Qobuz does not. And let's not get started on how Spotify rates on artist remunerations.
But if it leads me to new discoveries whose files I then chase down to purchase elsewhere, it still serves a purpose. And who knows, if Ireland gets upgraded to full resolution, perhaps the scouting itself will feel more fulfilling too?
