We’ve spent the better part of three years waiting for Spotify to get its act together and deliver on its promise of hi-res audio — announced in February 2021 — and it looks like the streamer is finally following through… for a price. According to “a person familiar with the plan,” speaking with Bloomberg, Spotify’s plan involves an extra $5/m and a keen prayer that customers won’t remember Apple Music already added lossless audio in 2021.
Worth the wait?
Spotify ‘HiFi’ is reaching mythical status at this point. In April, Reddit users noticed a couple of strings of code buried deep in Spotify’s Android app that point to a “Music Pro” add-on that perfectly aligns with what we’re hearing from Bloomberg. An optional HiFi audio tier that’ll only appeal to the audiophile crowd. But was it worth the wait when nearly all its competitors beat it to the punchline — without the price jump?
Maybe. The report mentions that the add-on could introduce more than just HiFi, and will include the ability to generate custom playlists (possibly using AI, if the leaks surrounding the ‘Supremium‘ tier are anything to go by) based on moods, activities, dates or seasons. These playlists are more than static, and can apparently adjust themselves based on user behaviour before eventually learning to create playlists without any input at all.
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Spotify, as usual, has declined to comment on the situation while speaking with The Verge.
“At Spotify, we are constantly exploring ideas to improve our product offering and offer value to users,” said spokesperson Grey Munford. “But we don’t comment on speculation around possible new features and do not have anything new to share at this time.”
There’s no exact date for Spotify’s hi-res audio streaming ambitions to go live, but all sources point to it arriving sometime before the end of the year. What it could cost in South Africa, which already falls well under the company’s $12/m pricing structure in the US, remains a mystery.