Spotify advances its Hi-Fi plan (yes, again)

I’m talking, and get ready, because it’s going to surprise you, about a version of the service specially designed for the most connoisseurs of good sound, with Hi-Fi quality and, even more, that also aims to have some other improvements with respect to the Premium subscription. , that is, the normal payment.

Yes, it’s obviously sarcasm. Deserved sarcasm, since the Hi-FI plan of Spotify It has been on the air since February 2021, more than three and a half years. At that time, perhaps you don’t even remember it anymore because of the time that has passed, the company announced that, throughout that year, it would debut “at some point and in some market” a subscription plan that would include this new level of quality. It was not something very specific, but at least it stated that it would be throughout 2021.

We all remember what happened next. A little less than three months later, in mid-May, Apple Music announced that it was making the leap to Hi-Fi quality and, surprise, that it was doing so without raising the price of the subscription to the service. And, if that were not enough, Amazon responded immediately, as you can see in the news linked in this same paragraph. With this blow, Apple seriously compromised the possibilities of charging more for a plan with Hi-Fi quality. There is no doubt that it was a hard blow, and it is perfectly understandable that it had a very direct impact on the plans of Spotify.

What is no longer understood is that, since then, the announcement has not yet materialized. In March 2023, just after the second anniversary of the announcement, a co-president of the company, asked about the plans in this regard, responded with a phrase that has remained in many of us: “Something will come at some point.” I don’t think it’s necessary to delve deeper… However, months later new rumors about Supremium surfaced. Would it arrive before the end of the year? Reality showed us that no.

Now we read, in TechCrunch, that the CEO of Spotify has spoken again, as he did a few months ago, about the future arrival of the Hi-Fi quality plan. On this occasion it was in a presentation of results to shareholders but, yes, in this case he has stated that this will happen “soon”, without giving not only a date, but not even an approximation at the quarter or even year level. It seems very, very unlikely (although not impossible) that this will happen before the end of 2024, but given the precedents, we cannot trust that it will happen in 2025 either. But that does not stop them from continuing to talk about it, of course. .