Waited since early 2021 by many users of the music service, having even prompted the subscription of some following its announcement, the Spotify HiFi offer ceased to be relevant in early 2022, as confirmed in person the CEO of the company.
The floor to Gustav Söderström, co-president of Spotify
Since the initial announcement, the competition - notably Apple Music and Amazon - have launched their Hi-Fi offer at no additional cost, a state of affairs which explains why Spotify is slow to come to market. The company certainly wants to monetize this option, but must now justify this pricing in the face of competing free offers. In any case, this is what transpires from a recent interview with Gustav Söderström - co-president of Spotify - with the site The Verge. “We announced it, but then the industry changed for various reasons,†says Söderström. We're going to do it, but we're going to do it in a way that makes sense to us and to our users. The industry has changed and we had to adaptâ€. Understand by this, we are very annoyed by the free Hi-Fi quality offered by our competitors…
Spotify HiFi, it's ready but it's expensive for society…
When asked to clarify his thinking on the subject, he kicks in: “We want to do it in a way that it also works for us from a financial point of view. I'm not allowed to comment on our label deals, or what other industry players have done, for obvious reasons." According to information from The Verge, the option is technically ready to be put on the market, and the entire Spotify catalog has already been converted to Hi-Fi.
