Image Credit: Reddit user – Nickx000x

A new video that supposedly shows the onboarding process of Spotify HiFi on the mobile app, suggests that a launch is imminent.

Spotify HiFi, the CD-quality lossless audio quality upgrade coming to the streaming service, was announced back in February this year. Since the announcement, details have been sparse and we’re still waiting to see when the feature will drop, how much the upgrade costs and the maximum streaming quality. While, we still don’t have definitive answers to these questions, we do have a sneak peak at what looks to be the onboarding process thanks to a Reddit user who modified the Android app. The video suggests Spotify HiFi could be just around the corner.

If the video is to be believed and features don’t change before the launch, hi-fi enabled tracks will show a green HiFi tag on the Now Playing screen. If tracks can’t be played in high fidelity, Spotify will let you know where the weak link in your setup is. This will likely tell you whether your internet connection or audio equipment needs upgrading to support HiFi playback. On the Spotify Connect page, device that support HiFi will have a green tag beside them.

Unfortunately the video still does not answer one of the biggest questions we have for Spotify HiFi. Since the announcement, Apple Music and Amazon Music HD have launched their own hi-fi services at zero extra cost over regular $9.99 per month subscriptions. The end of the video shows a Get access to HiFi button. If Spotify charge extra for HiFi, they will likely only attract a small number of enthusiasts who are die hard Spotify fans.

The second question we are waiting to be answered is, what will be the maximum audio quality available with Spotify HiFi. Currently, Spotify Premium streams at up to 320 kbps MP3. In the announcement, Spotify said “music in CD-quality, lossless audio format”. CD-quality is 16 bit at 44.1 kHz. While this is quite the step up from 320 kbps, most hi-fi streaming services surpass this quality, offering up to 24 bit at 192 kHz on Apple Music, Amazon Music HD, TIDAL HiFi, Qobuz Studio Premier and MOOV.

All we know about the launch date is from the initial announcement, which said “Spotify HiFi will begin rolling out in select markets later this year”. This new video shows that the feature is likely nearly ready to start rolling out.