In brief: Spotify has been prepping a lossless audio format for the better part of half a decade, yet somehow the streaming music giant still doesn’t have a solid timetable for when the higher quality tier will be available.
Last February during its Stream On event, the company said Spotify HiFi would debut later in the year and deliver CD-quality tunes as an option for Premium subscribers. Pricing and market availability details were missing, but it turns out those details really didn’t matter as the service never rolled out.
In response to community discussion on the matter, a Spotify moderator recently said they are excited to deliver a Spotify HiFi experience to Premium users in the future but don’t have timing details to share yet. The mod promised Spotify would share additional information when the time is right.
It’s plausible that Spotify is taking extra time to reconsider its strategy with HiFi. Apple Music offers spatial audio and lossless audio at no extra cost, and Amazon’s highest tier is available to Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers with no added cost. Perhaps Spotify is trying to decide if it should charge extra for HiFi or roll it into its existing Premium package.
The Swedish streaming provider in its most recent quarterly update back in October said total monthly active users now sit at 381 million, of which 172 million are paying subscribers. Results for the fourth quarter are expected to be shared after the market closes on February 2, 2022.
Image credit: Alexander Shatov
https://www.techspot.com/news/92925-spotify-hifi-doesnt-have-launch-date-after-nearly.html
