With Spotify Lossless, the most popular music streaming service in the world finally has almost everything users could want. After all, it's the most fully-featured service you can subscribe to, jam-packed with stuff like AI-DJ, social features, and even a game of snake (no, really).
So what could Spotify be missing, given that it seems to have more features than just about every other streamer out there? Well, there's one glaring omission compared to some of the competition, along with some bizarre missing extras that feel... weird.
So what could be coming next to Spotify, now that we've got one of the service's most asked-for features?
The big one — spatial audio
One of Apple Music's most popular (and famous) features is Spatial Audio, a version of Dolby Atmos that Apple uses to make music sound 'bigger' and more immersive. Amazon Music Unlimited has a similar version of the format, and there are loads of the best headphones that can decode the tracks to make them sound great. It seems to be the next 'big thing' in music streaming — although we've been saying that for the last few years.
Still, you would've thought that the biggest music streaming service would have dived into spatial audio with both feet, adding it to the lengthy list of features it already has. Yet, for some reason, Spotify is yet to join the spatial audio fold, instead adding features like a messenger and... Spotify Song Psychic.
So what could be going on? I've got a couple of ideas. The first is that spatial audio formats are already disparate enough without Spotify adding its own fuel to the ever-burgeoning fire. Apple's Spatial Audio is different from Amazon's Dolby Atmos, for example. And those are different from the movie versions of Atmos and other surround formats.
Bose and its Immersive Audio, for example, doesn't use traditional Atmos mixes, but rather its own algorithm to make your music sound bigger, wider, and (as you would hope) more immersive.
Then there are all the headphone and earbuds manufacturers that add their own versions of spatial audio. Bose and its Immersive Audio, for example, doesn't use traditional Atmos mixes, but rather its own algorithm to make your music sound bigger, wider, and (as you would hope) more immersive. This is the direction, interestingly, that some cheaper headphones are taking as well, leaving spatial audio platforms useless to a whole range of users.
And that, perhaps, is the crux of the issue. Spotify wants its features to be usable by as many of its listeners as possible. That's probably why Spotify Lossless came to market so late — and it's not lost on me that it was when wired headphones started becoming more popular that Spotify dropped its most requested feature.
Spotify knows that most users with AirPods are using Apple Music for their spatial audio fix, and most of its listeners are using headphones that either don't support the format or have a custom version already built in. "So," it asks itself, "what's the point?"
A reasonable question — although one that might need to be re-thought. I am not the greatest love of spatial audio, but to completely dismiss it seems akin to shooting oneself in the foot.
Will we see it come to the streamer any time soon? No, but I suspect if we do it will work differently to Apple Music and Amazon's implimentation. As opposed to a version of the format that needs special headphones to work, it would likely be a built-in version like Bose's, albeit designed for all headphones rather than one. Is it possible? Potentially, but we might not see it for some time. Of course, we might not see it at all — this is purely conjecture at this point.
Yet, still, the point remains. Spotify doesn't have Spatial Audio, and some of its closest rivals do.
What else?
Well, for one, Spotify Lossless simply isn't as lossless (see also: hi-res) as the competition. I'll go blue in the face while I rant and rave about how much lower the bit-rate is than the competition from Qobuz, Apple Music and Tidal. I'd say that "a higher quality lossless format" is a missing feature, but given how new Spotify lossless is, it's unlikely we'll see anything soon.
There are still some strange usability quirks as well. You can search the platform for different genres, but it remains a pain to browse your collection depending on the kind of music that you want to listen to. Genres aren't something visible in Spotify's UI. Never noticed it before? Go on, take a look. See what genre Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer is. Spotify won't tell you — Qobuz tells me it's rock. Far more helpful.
Look, Spotify is completely fully featured. There are loads of options in the app, more than any other streamer around. But minor complaints are common — the application is extremely busy, there are too many ads for free mode, and avoiding the extra AI nonsense that Spotify has added is tricky.
But it's that Spatial Audio omission that's the strangest thing. Whether it's a surefire inclusion or a potential flash in the pan remains to be seen.
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