Spotify CEO confirms a ‘deluxe’ version with hi-fi audio is coming soon

The saga of Spotify HiFi has many twists and turns. First introduced over three years in the past, the music service’s higher-quality streaming tier has nonetheless but to materialize. Recent reviews have mentioned lossless audio shall be bundled collectively with different perks (like superior library administration, AI-powered playlists, and headphone sound high quality optimization) as an add-on to Spotify’s premium subscription. And immediately, throughout Spotify’s earnings name, the corporate’s CEO, Daniel Ek, confirmed that a better-than-Premium providing is nonetheless within the works — although he provided no agency timetable as to when it’ll be obtainable.

In what is perhaps my favorite-ever use of a cliche tech business phrase, Ek mentioned the hassle is nonetheless “in early days.” (For these holding rating at house, it has been 1,247 days since Spotify first introduced HiFi.) “The plan here is to offer much a much better version of Spotify,” Ek mentioned. “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.”

That pricing would match Bloomberg’s estimates of the tier costing round $5 further on prime of Spotify’s $11.99 month-to-month charge. Whatever ultimate kind Spotify’s lossless audio in the end takes shall be a lot completely different than what the corporate first envisioned. By all indications, Spotify was caught flat-footed when Apple and Amazon started providing higher-resolution audio as a part of their customary subscription plans. The main music streamer had at all times supposed to promote it for an added premium.

Those firms will be extra aggressive with pricing since they’ve obtained quite a few different divisions to assist steadiness out any losses. Spotify isn’t so fortunate, so the corporate has needed to rejigger its plans and are available up with an add-on bundle that can hopefully show compelling to as lots of the app’s energy customers as potential. Finally, the timing appears to be proper.

“There’s a good subset of that group of 246 million subscribers that want a much better version of Spotify,” Ek mentioned. “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.”

Bloomberg reported that Spotify goals to roll out its “deluxe” version (as Ek refers to it) later this 12 months. So, in spite of everything this ready, we’ve solely obtained a few months left earlier than we study the whole lot that the add-on plan entails.