More than two years ago, Spotify promised to launch a HiFi tier for audiophiles and people who wanted the best music experience possible. While, at the time, only Tidal offered such a high sound quality at a high price, people believed Spotify would be the one to bring higher sound quality streaming to an even bigger audience.
While the company faced delays, Apple went ahead and announced in the middle of 2021 not only support for High-Res Lossless and Spatial Audio songs, but all of these features at no extra cost. Then, eventually, Amazon Prime and Deezer followed along, but Spotify was nowhere to launch a HiFi version of its service.
In these two years, the streaming company bet on original podcasts, revamping some of the buttons, bringing more personalized experiences, and even redesigning the app. Now, in an interview with The Verge, Spotify’s co-president Gustav Söderström talked about the future of HiFi.
“We announced it, but then the industry changed for a bunch of reasons,” Söderström said on the latest episode of Decoder. “We are going to do it, but we’re going to do it in a way where it makes sense for us and for our listeners. The industry changed, and we had to adapt.”
The publication tried to get a few more details from Söderström, but he only said, “we want to do it in a way where it works for us from a cost perspective as well. I’m not allowed to comment on our label agreements, nor on what other players in the industry did, for obvious reasons.”
While Apple Music and Amazon Music can add more features without charging more, since their main businesses don’t come from streaming, Spotify has faced not-so-good quarters due to investments in original content and the low-lucrative business, which is streaming in general. The company also complains about Apple and Google’s “abusive” 30% fee for every subscription made within the app.
That said, if you’re waiting for Spotify HiFi to launch, you’ll have to wait a bit more – although it’s coming. Eventually, but still coming.
