SPOTIFY IS TESTING LOSSLESS AUDIO. CAN YOU HEAR THE DIFFERENCE? by Frank Bi and Andrew Marino Apr 5, 2017, 12:11pm EDT Illustrations by William Joel / The Verge Is lossless audio really worth it? In March, Spotify briefly A/B tested a new lossless audio version of its streaming service. Spotted by Reddit users and confirmed to The Verge by a source inside Spotify, the new tier, currently dubbed Spotify Hi-Fi, will cost an additional $5 to $10 a month on top of the service’s $10 monthly price for its premium ad-free streaming service. Though a Spotify spokesperson declined to confirm the existence of the new tier, the move would not be unexpected; streaming service competitor Tidal already offers high-fidelity streaming for $19.99 a month. Up until now, Spotify has compressed audio down to a bitrate of 160 kbps on desktop or 96 kbps on mobile devices — Spotify calls this rate “normal.” Paid subsc...