Two years after its announcement, Spotify HiFi is still not abandoned and will see the light of day. It remains to be seen when.
Two years ago, Spotify unveiled a feature particularly awaited by its users: the arrival of files in CD quality via a new Spotify HiFi subscription. Announced with great fanfare in February 2021, the function is still awaited. If the music streaming platform finally held a conference at the end of last week, it finally revealed only new functions for the podcast as well as a new home screen, but still nothing on the side of quality files. higher.
Finally, it’s in the Decoder podcast of the American site The Verge that Gustav Söderström, co-president of the Swedish firm, spoke to confirm that the Spotify HiFi function was not abandoned. Asked whether the function had been completely set aside, the Spotify executive explains that the firm intends to launch this service, but “in a way that makes sense to [elle] And [ses] subscribers“. “The industry changed and we had to adapt“, he says.
Halfway, Gustav Söderström confirms that Spotify was taken aback by its own competitors. It must be said that, a few months after this announcement, Apple had launched the files in HD quality at no additional cost in Apple Music. Behind, Tidal, Amazon Music and Deezer followed, offering a basic subscription with at least CD quality files at no additional cost, while Spotify initially intended to offer these files in CD quality with a higher price than the classic package. A choice which is explained in particular by the fact that labels and record companies charge for listening to these better quality files at a higher price for streaming platforms: “There is a risk of becoming commonplace if you simply do what everyone else does, offering the cheapest or the fastest. We want to do something thoughtful“.
Spatial audio may well be coming to an end
If Gustav Söderström confirms that Spotify will indeed launch its Spotify HiFi function in the short, medium or long term – without however giving a date – he is a little more enigmatic as to the other direction taken by the music streaming industry. : spatial audio. Remember that Apple Music, Tidal and Amazon Music now offer Dolby Atmos files, and that Amazon Music and Tidal even include Sony 360 Reality Audio files. Asked whether Spotify was planning to launch into this field in turn, Gustav Söderström indicated that he did not wish to comment on this subject: “I’m not going to comment on that right now. I want to save this for later“.
If Spotify’s framework does not clearly confirm the platform’s interest in spatial audio, it indicates on the contrary that it has announcements to make on this subject “later“. We can therefore expect, here too, announcements in the short, medium or long term, without further details.
https://www.frandroid.com/android/288776_streaming-musical-offre-choisir#qualit-audio
To follow us, we invite you to download our Android and iOS application. You can read our articles, files, and watch our latest YouTube videos.