In a world of Bluetooth headphones and earbuds, Apple and Amazon are far more interested in hyping spatial Dolby Atmos audio than higher-bitrate streams that only shine on expensive gear. Lossless music is fundamentally a niche feature that’s at odds with how music is often consumed these days. Hugely popular platforms tend to avoid launching major new features at the tail end of the year. Barring a last-minute holiday surprise, it seems we’ll be waiting until sometime in 2022 for Spotify HiFi. And an onboarding video for HiFi was leaked in August.Īs 2021 stretched on, Spotify had a lot to say about podcasts but kept mum on the subject of HiFi and declined comment whenever The Verge asked about its status. There have been occasional signs of Spotify HiFi throughout the year a “HiFi” button could (very briefly) be spotted in the app back in May - complete with explainers on using the feature. But on the same day that Apple announced its plans for lossless streaming, and include HD quality as part of the regular premium plan. Before that shift, services like Amazon Music Unlimited and Tidal had been demanding an added premium for the feature.
Apple Music rolled out lossless and hi-res playback in June, offering the improved audio quality at no extra charge. Meanwhile, Spotify’s competitors didn’t wait around.
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