Expanding on what written above.
Spotify has requested that open source platforms make no further attempts to integrate lossless audio, as this could potentially enable unauthorized access to premium streaming. While it’s disappointing for us, this is a reasonable position: it not only protects their business model, but ensures compliance with strict agreements they have in place with rightsholders to prevent unauthorized use of content.
This means that if any open source project proceeds to enable lossless, that project will be taken down. As much as we’d love to enable lossless for our users, we will respect this decision. We don’t want to risk losing Spotify support for everyone. We also refuse to operate outside the bounds of what platforms and rightsholders require. Volumio must remain a reputable partner to all the streaming services we work with.
That said, we have a sophisticated non-open source streaming plugin infrastructure in place that we already use with other major DSPs. This framework has been validated to protect IP and streaming rights, and we could proceed through this route if it would unlock the situation.
This leaves us at an impasse. We’ve tried every avenue to communicate with Spotify because we want to bring the best possible experience to our users, and we’ve proven we’re capable of doing so while respecting IP rights and trade secrets. But so far, we’ve hit a brick wall.
If anyone from Spotify is reading this: please reach out to us.
Let’s find a way to bring lossless to our users. If there’s any community that will truly benefit from lossless, it’s ours. We’re obsessed with quality, and not only will we appreciate it, but engaging successfully with our community will provide you with valuable insights into making your platform even better for music enthusiasts.
We’re working with everyone in the industry and have brought all other major streaming platforms on board. It’s a shame we can’t do the same with you.
If you’d like to get in touch, you’ll find a partner willing to protect your IP and that of your licensors while delivering exceptional user experiences to your ideal target audience.