Spotify Still Can't Say When Its Delayed 'HiFi' Streaming Service Will Launch

Spotify users waiting to learn when the service's delayed "HiFi" premium audio service will materialize currently remain none the wiser, after the company responded noncommittally to requests for more information on its user community forums.

spotify hifi still waiting
Back in February, Spotify announced plans to introduce a "HiFi" premium tier by the end of 2021. According to Spotify, the feature will offer CD-quality music that will let fans experience more depth and clarity in their favorite tracks.

However, 2021 came and went with no sign of the high-bandwidth audio experience on Spotify and no update from the company on when it would launch. Understandably, Spotify users recently took to the service's community forums to ask for more details, to which Spotify responded:

We know that HiFi quality audio is important to you. 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.

First reports that Spotify was working on a lossless audio version of its streaming service appeared almost five years ago, when the company started testing the option with a small group of users.

Back then, promotional screens pitched the "Spotify Hi-Fi" tier as a $5-$10 upgrade to a standard Spotify subscription. However, based on the wording of its latest update, Spotify looks unlikely to offer it as a paid-for upgrade when it does launch, especially given that Apple Music includes lossless listening options as part of its standard subscription price.

Add to that the fact that Amazon has since stopped charging extra for its own lossless music library, bundling its "HD" tier into all standard Amazon Music Unlimited subscriptions instead, which makes the idea of Spotify asking users to pay more for a similar service seem like a non-starter.

In May, a tantalizing hint emerged that Spotify was on the cusp of launching its lossless plan after a glitch in the Spotify app briefly surfaced a hidden HiFi media playback menu.

However, Spotify's unintentional teaser last year came to nothing, and users of the streaming service remain as much in the dark now as they did then about when the surface will eventually appear.

Tag: Spotify

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Top Rated Comments

Zimmy68 Avatar
44 months ago
Something tells me they would have hit the deadline if they were able to charge a premium for it.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
contacos Avatar
44 months ago
90 % will not need it and another 9 % will not even have the right equipment to experience it.

However, this goes both ways. Uncle buys 500 Euro headphones, only to listen to YouTube converted music video audio rips and thinks he is having the full audio experience
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Bandaman Avatar
44 months ago
And pretty much everyone else at this point has lossless audio. This has been delayed about 8,000 times now.



How much better can it get?
Lossless.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
djcerla Avatar
44 months ago

Spotify premium already offers CD-like audio quality with the extreme audio quality option. How much better can it get?
I have Premium but as far as I know, the Very High setting is not CD quality. There’s no Ultra on my Mac app.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AdriftAtlas Avatar
44 months ago
I wonder if the issue is with Spotify's audio masters more than their inability to stream lossless. If their audio masters are highly compressed in terms of dynamic range throwing more bits at them won't matter.

Spotify's Ogg Vorbis at 320Kbps shouldn't sound much worse than lossless but song per song quality is noticeably worse when compared to Apple Music's AAC at 256Kbps. It doesn't take audiophile equipment to notice the difference either.

That being said, Apple Music's overall user experience is terrible and that's why I'm sticking with Spotify for the time being. And Spotify knows this.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JippaLippa Avatar
44 months ago
And yet everybody I know says "Apple Music is crap".
I personally love it; the icloud library (immensely useful in my case), the playlists and the soubd quality. All at a very fair price.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)