A report suggested that Apple Music’s lossless music launch has ruined Spotify’s HiFi plans, but a Spotify executive has confirmed that the next level is still to come. Spotify has announced that a lossless tier called Spotify HiFi will be released in 2021. Two years later, an official says that the HiFi level will definitely come, but it’s still unknown when.
Spotify has offered the HiFi level for over a year, and employees can access it. However, plans changed when Apple Music and Amazon revealed lossless music at no extra cost. The report was created based on an interview with Spotify Co-President Gustav Soderstrom conducted by Decoder. The interview briefly mentioned the HiFi level, but no release date or other information was provided.
“We announced it, but then the industry changed for a lot of reasons,” Soderstrom told Decoder. “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 have to adapt.”
The interviewer pressed for more details on why the level was delayed, but Soderstrom didn’t specifically mention a competitor or trademark deal. The report generated after the introduction of Apple Music lossless at no extra charge ruined Spotify’s plans – although Soderstrom didn’t directly say so.
Apparently Spotify was hoping to offer lossless music at a higher premium and still can. This tier will be a revenue generator and can offer even more features, such as spatial audio.
The interview mentioned in the report focuses on Spotify’s mainline in a TikTok-like format. There is no mention of a Spotify HiFi release date or any intention to include spatial audio or other formats.