Spotify has been a pioneer when it comes to streaming music playback. It took many years for other rivals to arrive who, although they are light years away, are now beginning to stand up little by little. This platform, throughout its life, has implemented all kinds of functions and features for its users, both those of the free plan and the Premium ones. However, there is a long-awaited function that, despite being announced, has not yet arrived: music in High Fidelity, or Hi-Fi.
When it comes to high-quality music, Spotify has had a very tough competitor: Tidal. In addition, other similar services, such as Apple Music, offer users, at no additional cost, the possibility of listening to music in the highest quality, either with digital masters, or through algorithms such as Dolby Atmos. Spotify, in the best of cases, only offers music in high quality, at 320 Kbps, a shameful quality these days, and only if we pay for Premium.
In 2021, the company announced that it was working on a new hi-fi modality, Spotify HiFi. This high-quality streaming music playback service would arrive as an additional subscription model, which would have a cost of 19.99 euros per month, twice as much as the individual Premium plan. As long as it is something optional, it represents an improvement in the service that, whoever wants to enjoy it, can pay for it.
It seemed that everything was ready for launch. Tidal gains users, Apple and Amazon promote their lossless music streaming services… but two years have passed since the announcement and nothing has been heard from him. What happened?
For Spotify, Hi-Fi is not a priority
While it’s true that lossless music was heard a lot in 2021, and its rivals implemented it very quickly, the trend has passed very quickly. And, if it is a more expensive service, as the company claims, it has everything to lose.
He Spotify Hi-Fi mode it is real. The workers themselves already have access to it to test it and detect possible problems and failures. Probably even the entire infrastructure is ready. But what is not ready is the business strategy.
Spotify is currently working on a new strategy which, among other things, seeks to adjust the price according to the service offered by its competitors. If Apple or Amazon offer it for free, Spotify can’t ask to pay (much) more for it. Also, for the company, Tidal, which is the largest Hi-Fi music platform, is not a direct competitor.
We can be clear about one thing: lossless music is coming to Spotify. But also another, 2023 is not going to be the year in which we see it. It is likely that, if all goes well, this new service will arrive in 2024. But for now, we can only wait. And, if we are audiophiles, we will have no choice but to bet on Tidal or Apple Music to be able to listen to music directly from the studio.
