In February 2021, Spotify announced the future availability of a HiFi version for lossless music playback. The company, specifically, confirmed that at the end of that same year the function would be available through a new plan that, to this day, more than two years later, has not yet arrived. After the uncertainty of many users and after rumors about the price and the occasional brief statement by its CEO, Spotify has finally spoken out about why this plan hasn’t arrived yet.
Gustav Söderström, who is co-chairman of Spotify, has told The Verge that the platform’s HiFi plan continues, but have not yet been officially released due to changes in the industry. “We are going to do it [lanzar Spotify HiFi], but we’re going to do it in a way that makes sense to us and our listeners. The industry changed and we had to adapt”, he has detailed to the aforementioned medium.
Regarding the changes in the industry, Söderström seems to be referring to the possibility of listening to music in Dolby Atmos and without loss of quality on Apple Music; function that the Cupertino company announced in June 2021 and that, in addition, is available without the need to contract an additional plan. Let’s remember that Spotify’s initial plan was to announce a Premium plan more expensive than the individual subscription with the ability to play lossless songs as an exclusive feature. Amazon has also followed in Apple’s footsteps and offers HiFi sound on Amazon Music at no extra cost.
Spotify looks for a way to make the HiFi version profitable and compete with Apple Music at the same time
The problem, and the reason Spotify HiFi hasn’t launched yet, is that the company seems to be hell-bent on monetizing this feature and, at the same time, to be able to compete against Apple Music. In fact, Söderström has detailed to The Verge that they are looking for a way to launch this plan in a way that also works for them “from a cost perspective”.
According to a leak, Spotify HiFi was going to be available on a “Platinum” plan whose price was to be $19.99 per month. That is, twice as expensive as the premium plan. At this time, it is unknown if the ability to listen to lossless audio will come to the individual subscription at no additional cost or if users will have to pay extra to use this feature.