Although Spotify HiFi has yet to launch after being announced more than two years ago, some kind of lossless experience is still on the way, Spotify co-chairman Gustav Söderström said in an interview with the edge. But don’t get your hopes up by any specific information about when.
“We announced it, but then the industry changed for various reasons,” Söderström said on the latest episode of Decoder. “We’re going to do it, but we’re going to do it in a way that makes sense to us and to our listeners. The industry changed and we had to adapt.”
Spotify originally said its plan was to launch HiFi as a premium tier by the end of 2021. Since then, Apple Music and Amazon have offered lossless music at no extra charge, and HiFi music has spread to other services as well.
When pressed for details about how the industry changed or whether the delay was due to cost, Söderström largely demurred. “We want to do it in a way that also works for us from a cost perspective. I am not allowed to comment on our label deals, or what other players in the industry have done, for obvious reasons.”
the edge recently learned that Spotify HiFi has been ready to go for over a year. The technical work to bring the feature to market is nearly complete, and the company is back to ingesting its entire music catalog in lossless quality. Spotify employees have access to HiFi. But since it was originally meant to cost more than the standard plan (and thus increase Spotify’s average revenue per user), Apple botched the launch by including lossless Apple Music for free. If you read Söderström’s responses, it’s clear that Spotify doesn’t intend to do the same. Now you can expect HiFi to eventually show up as part of a more expensive plan, likely one that also includes Dolby Atmos/spatial audio and other perks related to audiobooks and podcasts.
as for when you can actually expect to listen to lossless music on Spotify, all Söderström would confirm is that HiFi is “coming at some point”. While he waits, he’ll have some time to adjust to Spotify’s new TikTok redesign.
Update March 14, 12:20 pm ET: The article has been updated with more details about the current state of Spotify HiFi.
