10 months after initially announcing Spotify HiFi Lossless Audio and subsequently missing its 2021 launch deadline, Spotify has not given any hint of a revised timeline for the feature. Last February, Spotify tried to counter Apple Music’s upcoming lossless audio streaming by announcing its own feature.
Spotify HiFi will offer CD-quality lossless audio to premium users, which is supposed to launch in select markets later in 2021. Nearly ten months later, and without a release, Spotify offers an update on Spotify HiFi. For those who pay for the music streaming service on a monthly basis, the update is a bit of a disappointment rather than a hopeful nor an expected launch time.
In an update to a lengthy community thread, Spotify on Friday issued a reassurance that it’s still working on the feature. We know HiFi-quality audio is important to you. We feel the same way, and we’re excited to offer the Spotify HiFi experience to premium users in the future, the update reads.
While initially hopeful, the update later admitted, but we don’t have the time details to share yet. Spotify finally said that it will update the feature to the community in the future. Spotify did not explain why it missed the rather long deadline or what prevented it from offering the service to paying subscribers.
Despite Spotify’s attempt to derail the launch of Apple Music’s lossless audio, Apple’s streaming service functionality doesn’t appear to be affected by the announcement. Apple announced lossless audio and Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos in May and then made those features available to users in June.