Spotify’s CEO Is Cagey On When Their HiFi Service Will Roll Out

With there being so many music streaming services out there, obviously companies need to come up with ways to compete against each other. Having a larger catalogue of popular music is one thing, price is another, and so are features. In the case of Spotify, the company initially planned to launch a HiFi service with higher quality streams, but it seems that the launch date is still unclear.

During the company’s Q4 2021 earnings report, the company’s CEO Daniel Ek told analysts and investors that they are still uncertain as to when the HiFi service is expected to launch. According to Ek, “Many of the features that we talk about and especially that’s related to music ends up into licensing. So I can’t really announce any specific on this other than to say that we’re in constant dialogue with our partners to bring this to market.”

That being said, Spotify is in a bit of a tough spot. This is because Apple had previously announced their own HiFi streaming service that would be available to Apple Music subscribers at no extra cost. This is versus Spotify who said that the HiFi tier would cost customers extra if they wanted to use it.

This puts Spotify in a bit of a bind because Tidal had previously attempted to set itself apart by launching a more expensive but higher quality stream, which clearly did not pan out the way the company had hoped. This would suggest that while there might be users who are willing to pay, it might not necessarily be enough to cover the costs on Spotify’s end, especially when other platforms like Apple Music are essentially giving it away for free.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Audio
Tags: Entertainment, Music, Spotify