After parting ways with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Spotify reportedly has a higher-priced subscription plan bringing high-fidelity audio to users in the works.
Bloomberg reported that listeners of the audio streaming giant outside the U.S. will get the “Supremium”-nicknamed option in 2023. The outlet attributed the information to unnamed “people familiar with the strategy.”
On Wednesday, the stock got an upgrade by Wolfe Research with a $190 price target.
The plan’s price point will reportedly come set above its currently-available options. On top of a cost-free ad-supported plan, Spotify has several premium offerings, including one for individuals with a $9.99 monthly fee and ones for students, duos and families with other price tags, according to its website.
The high-fidelity audio feature that Bloomberg reported Spotify will probably incorporate into the upcoming new subscription dates back to February 2021, when it originally revealed it intended on adding it in certain markets for people with premium accounts.
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The company described Spotify HiFi, which got later delayed, as designed to “deliver music in CD-quality, lossless audio format to your device and Spotify Connect-enabled speakers.” Lossless audio exists already for listening options with Amazon Music and Apple Music.
FOX Business reached out to Spotify for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication. The audio streaming giant told Bloomberg that while it is “constantly iterating and ideating to improve our product offering and offer value to users,” it doesn’t comment on “speculation around possible new features.”
Another change coming first to non-U.S. premium users and later American ones will let them consume more audiobooks, according to Bloomberg. That will reportedly happen in one of two ways, affording them a set amount of books or allocating some free hours each month.
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One new feature that Spotify recently announced was an artificial intelligence DJ. With that feature, users with access to it will receive a “curated lineup of music alongside commentary around the tracks and artists we think you’ll like in a stunningly realistic voice” from the DJ, the company said in February.
In April, Spotify said the total number of monthly active users it saw in the first quarter came in at 515 million, marking an increase from both the 489 million it reported in the fourth quarter and the 422 million it counted in 2022’s first quarter. Its premium subscriptions, at 210 million as of the first quarter, experienced 15% growth year-over-year.
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