LG Launches Hi-Fi Music Service for Premium Smartphone Users

South Korean consumer electronics giant LG on Thursday announced that starting August, it would be delivering high-fidelity (Hi-Fi) songs to its premium smartphone users.

The new service, which offers high-fidelity music, would be available via the company's own LG SmartWorld app. In addition, the service for now is limited to only 70 regions including the United States, India, Australia, Brazil, China, France, Italy, Russia and the United Kingdom. LG has further caged the service by stating that only users of those LG smartphones that support 24bit music playback would be able to enjoy the high-fidelity music, such as the LG G Flex2, LG G2, and LG G3, as well as this year's flagship model, the LG G4. The service is also accessible via the LG World website.

As per the smartphone maker, the hi-fi music it will be providing, is "very close to the original sound" with a playback of 24bit/192KHz, which is said to be six times the audio clarity offered in a typical CD - 16bit/44.1kHz. The qualifying LG users, as a part of the service, would be able to download two free hi-fi tracks and would also have the option to purchase songs at 50 percent off the regular price.

"Our Hi-Fi music service reflects our ongoing commitment to providing additional customer benefits to loyal LG customers," said Chris Yie, Vice President and Head of Marketing Communications for LG Mobile Communications Company. "MP3 music is perfectly fine for most people but those with Hi-Fi capable LG smartphones can experience a much richer environment."

By introducing the Hi-Fi music service, LG is joining Samsung and Apple. Samsung launched Milk Music last year for Galaxy smartphone users, though earlier this year the company made the service available to all via the Web interface. Apple Music is currently only available to iOS mobile users, but can be accessed via the iTunes client on OS X and Windows. It is due to arrive on Android soon. The biggest other difference between LG's service and those from Apple and Samsung is the music quality, with Samsung providing 128Kbps quality audio, and Apple 256Kbps.