What you need to know
- Spotify does not know when it will add HiFi music support.
- CEO Daniel Ek blamed the delay in new features like HiFi on licensing issues.
- Apple Music has featured Lossless Audio support for almost a year already.
Spotify has no idea when it'll catch up to Apple Music with an important feature.
As reported by 9to5Mac, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, on a call with analysts and investors, revealed that the company doesn't currently know when it will release HiFi audio support for its app. Ek blamed the delay on issues with licensing and the company is in "constant dialogue" to get new music features out the door.
Many of the features that we talk about and especially that's related to music ends up into licensing. So I can't really announce any specific on this other than to say that we're in constant dialogue with our partners to bring this to market.
Spotify originally announced that support for HiFi music would launch by the end of 2021 but, come 2022, the feature is still missing from the service and there is still no set launch date.
Support for HiFi is Spotify's equivalent feature to Apple Music's support for Lossless Audio, which launched on the streaming music service in May of 2021. The feature, which allows users to stream music in higher quality, was added at no cost to any subscribers to the service.
In addition to being behind Apple Music with the lack of Lossless Audio support, Spotify also still lacks support for Spatial Audio, another feature that launched on Apple's music streaming service last year. The feature, which adds support for songs mixed in Dolby Atmos, allows users to listen to a song in 360-degree audio.
Spotify, in addition to struggling to add new features, is also facing backlash from its user base with some artists pulling their music off of the platform due to Joe Rogan's podcast.
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