Spotify Co-President assures HiFi is coming: “The industry changed and we had to adapt”
Written by WOM writer on March 15, 2023
“We want to do it in a way where it works for us from a cost perspective as well.”
Spotify Co-President Gustav Söderström has assured that its long-awaited HiFi service is still “coming at some point,” but that the streaming giant is looking to “do it in a way where it makes sense for us and for our listeners.”
“We announced it, but then the industry changed for a bunch of reasons,” Söderström said. “We are going to do it, but we’re going to do it in a way where it makes sense for us and for our listeners. The industry changed and we had to adapt.”
When the publication pressed for more details, Söderstöm added: “We want to do it in a way where it works for us from a cost perspective as well. I’m not allowed to comment on our label agreements, nor on what other players in the industry did, for obvious reasons.”
HiFi promised to bring listeners streaming at CD-quality audio (resolutions upwards of 44.1kHz/16-bit) and was announced in March 2021. Just a few months later, both Apple Music and Amazon each announced its versions of lossless streaming, plus spatial audio support and more at no extra cost.
Spotify HiFi never made its planned 2021 launch, but since then, the streaming service has made made other significant plays, including its expansion into podcasts and audiobooks, the addition of AI-based personalisation, and most recently, TikTok-like scrolling.
Source: Daniel Seah – musictech.com
Image: unsplash.com
