Promised for the year 2021, Spotify HiFi is still not here. The Swedish music streaming service has confirmed that it has been postponed indefinitely.
Source: Spotify
At the start of the year, Spotify hit a big blow by announcing one of its major projects for 2021, the arrival of a Spotify HiFi formula. This was to make it possible, at an additional cost, to enjoy audio files in CD quality (16 bits, 44.1 kHz). As the year draws to a close, it was still radio silence at the Swedish firm. Logical, since the project was discreetly put under the carpet.
A few days ago, the American site The Verge was worried about this lack of a feature yet promised last February: “Where’s Spotify HiFi?” “. Finally, it is the German site Golem which answers: “The launch of Spotify HiFi has been postponed indefinitely”.
Golem has indeed obtained a response from the Swedish service regarding the lack of availability of this feature, yet promised with a lot of video with singer Billie Eilish:
Artists and fans have told us that Spotify HiFi is important to them. We agree and look forward to bringing the Spotify HiFi experience to our premium users in the future, but we don’t have more details to share.
This communication from Spotify comes a few days before the death knell of 2021 and it therefore seems that the service will not be available until next year. It remains to be seen why this postponement.
A launch that no longer takes place after Apple Music Lossless
It must be said that 2021 was a turbulent year in the field of lossless files for music streaming services. If Spotify was the first to promise the arrival of this function – then available at an additional cost from Deezer, Amazon and Tidal – the Swedish firm has had its hair cut to the pole by an unexpected competitor: Apple Music.
Last June, the Cupertino company announced the arrival of quality “Lossless” on its entire catalog, at no additional cost for users, so from the basic subscription to 9.99 euros per month. In the wake of Apple, Amazon announced that its Music HD offer would be integrated into the basic offer. More recently, Tidal has revised its offers and now offers CD quality from the classic subscription.
While Spotify’s initial project aimed to offer a HiFi offer – in CD quality – at a price increase for its users, these ambitions now seem outdated: Amazon, Apple and Spotify already offer such quality for a price of 9.99 euros per month. As such, the communication from Spotify seems eloquent since the music service now seeks to offer HiFi quality to its “premium users”, therefore those who have subscribed to Spotify Premium for 9.99 euros per month. There seems to be no longer any question of a higher package.
However, in the absence of financial gain for Spotify to offer this feature at an additional cost, there is no rush for the Swedish firm. The main argument, now that Spotify is outdated, is not to be too long. It’s no longer about making money, it’s just about not losing too many users who might be tempted to switch to Amazon Music or Apple Music.
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