Quick Summary
Spotify CEO, Daniel Ek, has confirmed that Spotify Hi-Fi is coming.
He also confirmed the price, which is likely to be less pleasing for fans.
If you're a music lover or an audiophile, you're likely already familiar with the name Spotify Hi-Fi. That's the name given to the brand's mythical high-resolution audio offering, which has been touted for years.
That would pull it level with competitors like Apple Music. That service offers high-quality audio output as part of its core product, via lossless audio recordings and its Advanced Audio Codec.
Now, Spotify's mysterious offering has come to the fore. Company CEO, Daniel Ek, confirmed that the offering will arrive. That happened during a quarterly earnings call for the brand.
Ek was keen to discuss the project, acknowledging that a good proportion of the apps near 250-million user base would appreciate the functionality. He said, "The plan here is to offer a much better version of Spotify. 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.”
While the CEO was happy to allude to it, he wouldn't go as far as giving any concrete information on when. That's going to be a frustration for many, as the brand has appeared to drag its feet on this since it was first teased some seven years ago. Ek even closed out the segment saying, "It's early days."
Still, we do at least know the expected pricing. In his speech, Ek said that the Hi-Fi tier would cost around $17 per month. That's a fair old price hike over the standard tier, though likely no more or less than any of us expected.
Still, it might be a tall order for those on the fence. While higher quality sound would be nice, it's far from a must have for most users. For those who do crave it, competitors offering similar functionality for much less will provide stern competition.
