Paying for premium: A critical look into technical audio quality in streaming services

Abstract

The digital revolution has profoundly reshaped both the production and consumption of music on a global scale. The widespread adoption of mobile music streaming services has facilitated this transformation, offering users a convenient and seemingly boundless access to vast music libraries. These platforms have evolved beyond simply providing music access, offering premium packages that promise not only enhanced audio quality but also a lot of value-added features designed to elevate the user experience. These features include playlist creation capabilities, personalized song recommendations based on individual listening habits, and seamless offline listening functionalities. Moreover, the promise of better sound quality has become a key part of marketing, encouraging users to choose paid subscription models (often called "First Class" or "Premium"), rather than settling for lower audio quality and free-ads users experience. Recent research, however, building upon a foundation of prior studies, has cast doubt on the universality of this perceived distinction on audio quality. The findings suggest that individuals lacking specialized training or access to high-fidelity sound systems may struggle to notice subtle differences in certain audio qualities. Furthermore, the advancement of compression technologies like MPEG, Ogg-vorbis, and AAC has played a crucial role in ensuring a satisfactory listening experience even at lower compression ratios, further blurring the lines between varying sound qualities for the average listener. Given that smartphones and similar devices serve as the primary access point for music streaming for a vast majority of consumers, this discrepancy between promised and delivered audio quality warrants critical examination. Specifically, two key concerns emerge: • Can consumers readily notice deviations from the promised audio quality? • Are music producers and artists subject to any restrictions regarding the upload of low-quality audio files? Therefore, this study undertakes a critical evaluation of the veracity of streaming service providers' claims regarding the audio quality delivered through their premium services. Additionally, it assesses the extent to which music producers and artists can upload low-quality audio files without limitations. By focusing on two of the most prevalent global music streaming services world-wide and two local streaming services from Turkey, this investigation aims to shed light on the validity of these claims and the potential disconnect between promised and actual audio quality delivered to consumers. The findings of this study reveal that the premium options offered by these platforms do not consistently deliver the pledged audio quality, and low-quality audio files can indeed be uploaded without customer notification. Despite this discrepancy, consumers continue to subscribe to paid services, suggesting a potential acceptance or unawareness of the gap between promised and actual audio quality.