Spotify HiFi is official. Almost four years after it was first teased, a CD-quality tier is finally coming to the world’s most popular streaming service, the green giant has revealed during its ‘Stream On’ online event today.

Spotify will join the likes of Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer and Amazon in offering lossless streaming “beginning later this year”. Spotify HiFi will begin rolling out in select markets later this year, with the company promising to share more details – such as price, device compatibility and specific launch dates – soon.

CD-quality streams will be compatible with Spotify Connect, allowing Spotify HiFi subscribers to easily play such high-quality streams between their phone (via the iOS and Android apps presumably) or, fingers crossed, their computer (via the desktop app or web player) and the mass of Spotify Connect-enabled speakers and devices on the market.

“We’re working with some of the world’s biggest speaker manufacturers to make Spotify HiFi accessible to as many fans as possible through Spotify Connect,” reads Spotify’s statement.

According to Spotify, “high quality music streaming” has consistently been one of users’ most requested new features. Last summer, we speculated as to whether it was still part of the service’s roadmap and questioned if, with so many services already offering higher quality streaming, it would still be as welcome.

We concluded that “we’d love Spotify, the world’s biggest music streaming service, to champion high-quality music. However, thanks to a trio of fine alternatives, including Amazon flying the hi-res flag for mass-market streaming… we can’t say we need it”. Now that it’s (almost) here, we can’t help but feel that the service will be more or less complete, having filled that gaping hole. That said, Spotify hasn’t said anything about ‘hi-res’ streams (generally defined as anything above CD-quality), which are also offered by many of its rivals, such as Tidal and Amazon Music HD.

Price will, of course, come into play – and we wonder how close Spotify will come to Amazon Music HD (£12.99, $12.99 for Prime members; £14.99, $14.99 for non-Prime members). If Spotify can match or even undercut that monthly fee, the future landscape of music streaming will be very interesting indeed.

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