Spotify say HiFi is in ‘early days’, after 3 years…
Spotify users looking for superior quality may be waiting a while longer based on the latest announcements for Spotify HiFi.
Spotify‘s CEO, Daniel Ek, revealed a little more about their company’s plans for Hi-Fi this week. In an investors call, Ek gave the ungratifyingly ambiguous announcement that their plans to bring Hi-Fi to Spotify were still in the “early days”.
However, he does reveal a little more about what Spotify Hi-Fi will look. Ek says: “The plan here is to offer a much better version of Spotify.” It seems that after rumours of Hi-Fi being a paid add-on for Premium subscribers, it will actually come with other benefits in a new “deluxe” tier.
Ek said: “Think something like $5 above the current premium tier. So, it’s probably around a $17 or $18 price point, but sort of a deluxe version of Spotify that has all of the benefits that the normal Spotify version has, but a lot more control, a lot higher quality across the board, and some other things that I’m not ready to talk about just yet.”
Spotify users have been asking for high-fidelity audio streaming for years. In 2021, Spotify announced that CD-quality, lossless audio was on the way. They delayed the launch after Apple Music added high fidelity audio at no extra cost. For Spotify to compete, their deluxe subscription will need to offer more than high quality audio.
Suggestions include new tools for creating playlists amongst other as-yet unknown features. Ek adds: “There’s a good subset of that group of 246 million subscribers that want a much better version of Spotify. Those are huge music lovers who are primarily looking for even more flexibility in how they use Spotify and the music capabilities that exist on Spotify.
Just this year we’ve seen two major leaks suggesting Spotify HiFi was on the way from leaked app code. Those rumours have also evolved the idea of what shape HiFi will take on Spotify: A subscription tier of its own or a paid add-on feature for Premium subscribers. Now, we seem to have confirmation from the CEO that Hi-Fi will come in a new subscription tier.
Spotify recently revealed their second-quarter results for 2024. They remain the world’s top service for on-demand, premium music streaming. Nearly a quarter of a billion people are now on Spotify Premium.
Spotify also announced that they have a total of 626 million Monthly Active Users. That represents roughly 380 million people using Spotify for free, on their ad-supported service. As some are calling for an end to free music streaming, Ek seems to want to expand it.
Speaking of their next steps, Ek said: “We are prioritising enhancements in our free product pipeline that, based on existing performance in certain markets, should boost engagement and retention, especially in our developing markets.”