Spotify's promises to bring Hi-Fi trace back to "Stream On" event in 2021 when the streaming platform confirmed its "most requested feature" was in the works. Back then, Spotify even released a blog post that said, "Beginning later this year, Premium subscribers in select markets will be able to upgrade their sound quality to Spotify HiFi and listen to their favorite songs the way artists intended."
Three years from that, and there's still no Hi-Fi on Spotify. Since then, the steaming service extended its offerings with podcasts, audiobooks, and even paid an eccentric podcaster Joe Rogan $250 million, as estimated by The Wall Street Journal, to have his exclusive show on the platform.
But it seems like Hi-Fi is finally on its way. Redditors, as always, were the first ones to notice that something's changing and Spotify might actually be working on the lossless audio feature.
Redditor called OhItsTom shared a few screenshots in the r/truespotify subreddit that show what the feature is about to bring: lossless streaming quality of up to 2,117kbps (current Spotify bit rate is 320kbps) and a device compatibility checker. For limited songs in FLAC, the support of up to 24-bit/44.1kHz may also be available.
"They are moving from a popup to a side panel just like the device control, please note you cant be served the actual high fidelity audio files yet, its just visual. Also its enhanced listening not hi-fi internally now," the Redditor says.
It's not yet clear how much users will need to pay for Lossless, but the recent rumours suggest the new long-awaited feature will fall under the Superpremium tier that would allegedly cost $19.99 a month.
Spotify co-president Gustav Söderström confirmed to The Verge in June, 2023, that the streaming service was trying to work out the financials of HiFi, “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.”
So, it seems like Spotify has been quietly working on the long-promised feature after all, and ghosting that lasted three years was in some way justified. Spotify hasn't confirmed when exactly the new Hi-Fi, or rather the rebranded "Lossless" feature will be out, but we can at least hope it's going to be available later this year.
