It could be a while before Spotify subscribers will have the option of enjoying the streaming service’s extensive catalog of albums and podcasts in lossless quality.
This is according to a post by a Spotify moderator, who shared a message on the official forums confirming that its upcoming lossless audio tier, Spotify HiFi, no longer has a clear release date. Spotify announced its premium HiFi tier in February 2021, claiming at the time that it would be available late last year.
“We know that HiFi quality audio is important to you,” reads the post from Yordan. “We feel the same, and we’re excited to deliver a Spotify HiFi experience to Premium users in the future. But we don’t have timing details to share yet.”
“We will of course update you here when we can.”
Spotify HiFi will launch with the following benefits, per the company’s announcement from February 2021:
- High-quality music streaming is consistently one of the most requested new features by our users.
- Spotify HiFi will deliver music in CD-quality, lossless audio format to your device and Spotify Connect-enabled speakers, which means fans will be able to experience more depth and clarity while enjoying their favorite tracks.
- Ubiquity is at the core of everything we do at Spotify, and we’re working with some of the world’s biggest speaker manufacturers to make Spotify HiFi accessible to as many fans as possible through Spotify Connect.
- HiFi will be coupled with Spotify’s seamless user experience, building on our commitment to make sure users can listen to the music they love in the way they want to enjoy it.
- Spotify HiFi will begin rolling out in select markets later this year, and we will have more details to share soon.
Some users speculate that Spotify has been forced to come up with a different gameplan following updates to Apple Music, which introduced its own lossless tier alongside Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos in May 2021. It seems as if Spotify wanted to charge extra for lossless audio, but Apple already provides the perk to subscribers of its Student, Individual, and Family plans at no additional cost.
Source: Spotify