When Is Spotify HiFi Coming, Exactly? — Spotify Won’t Say

More than two years ago, Spotify announced its high-definition music service, Spotify HiFi. But that hasn’t happened. Spotify won’t say why, but the answer is Apple.

In 2021, Spotify was preparing to launch a premium tier of audio called Spotify HiFi. Then Apple Music rolled out spatial audio streaming at no extra charge, leaving Spotify in the shadows. Two years later, Spotify still hasn’t found a way to adapt to what its competitors offer on its basic plan without charging extra. That analysis has been largely confirmed by recent studies. The Barge Interview with Spotify’s Gustav Söderström.

“Announced [Spotify HiFi], but then the industry changed for various reasons,” says Söderström. “We’re going to do it, but we’re going to do it in a way that makes sense for us and our listeners. The industry has changed and we’ve had to adapt,” The Verge told Söderström. We press him to reveal more information, but he is unable to do so for obvious reasons.

“We want to do it in a way that works for us, also from a cost perspective. I am not allowed to comment on our label deal or what other players in the industry have done. Hmm,” he told The Verge.

Söderström said Spotify HiFi is a way for the company to “try our own unique things.” So Spotify HiFi is still on the way, but it’s unclear how it will take shape. This is especially true when both Amazon Music and Apple Music offer high-fidelity audio quality without additional premiums. His HiFi lossless-type experience for Spotify is coming at some point, but we don’t know when that will be.

With Spotify’s latest redesign, the company seems to be focused on bringing video to the forefront of the platform. We want to not only offer music, audiobooks and podcasts under our umbrella, but also follow the lightning bolt of TikTok.