Weekly poll: Is Spotify about to launch a high-res Platinum streaming package? Are you interested?

Rumors surfaced over the weekend that Spotify may finally be ready to up its game when it comes to audio quality. A story on 9to5Mac speculates about the imminent launch of a “Platinum” subscription that will offer better sounding audio.

Spotify is far behind in this regard. Tidal was the first to offer hi-res streaming (for a fee) and was followed by Deezer doing the same. Then Amazon Music (“HD Music”) and Apple Music (lossless and Spatial Audio) threw a big bang in everyone’s bow by offering high-resolution music at no additional cost to their paid plans. (Of course, Apple ONLY has a paid plan.)

Spotify’s current bitrate is (we think) 320kbps – which, if you remember burning CDs, is the highest quality setting for MP3s. Compare that to 1,411 kbps for a CD. High-resolution audio is twice as much.

Speculating wildly, it appears that more than 18 months after Spotify began discussing its audio plans, the company may be ready to pull the trigger — but at twice the price of a regular subscription (ie $19.99 in month). According to reports over the weekend, this could be revealed in the next month.

The consequence of this is that the free tier and regular paid subscription package will stay with 320 kbps streaming.

So here’s the question: Is better-sounding music a priority for you to spend $20 a month on on Spotify? Or would you switch to Apple and Amazon to get it for free? Take the survey here.