Where is Spotify HiFi?

[JaspisB]

The year is almost over and no HiFi in sight. No news. No communication. Nothing. What's going on? Some info would be nice. 

[thirdlife86]

Same for me, had to unsubscribe as i don't like being lied to and having to pay for it in the process. No thanks. Using Apple Music and Tidal now.

[LawLee]

A Glimmer of Hope?

Spotify HiFi logo started popping up on my Tesla this morning. : truespotify (reddit.com)

[Blueshound24]

I would be shocked if Spotify actually delivers on their promise to provide lossless CD quality.

[taravasya2]

This image is just fake. The hifi icon is exactly the same as in the tidal interface. And also there is a clearly visible halo around the white heart, which suggests that here two interfaces were "crossed" using photomontage

[Henry172]

Had enough of hanging on for Hifi. Cancelled my spotify sub and moved to Qobuz which has a far better sound on my system.

I bet Billie Eilish is a bit pi**ed off with them as well. Must be embarrassing being associated to this farce.

[user-removed]

This is not an answer! Embarrassing!

[gctomas]

Using Tidal when Spory can't deliver

[PaulMac]

"At this moment, we don't have any information regarding the availability of HiFi music."

Seriously what kind of an answer is that?

I mean its a simple enough question and it deserves an answer. Spotify are of course FULLY aware of where they're at with Hi-Fi. But for whatever reason they simply choose not to provide any information to us, the subscribers who pay their wages!

And then to refer the person to the main Hi-Fi thread to cast a vote.  What good will that do? An idea that's been running since 2014 with zero evidence that Spotify staff even read the posts - they've managed 1 update in 7 years...

[dsranawake]

Yes totally agree. I’ve been wondering the same thing. I love all the things Spotify is doing with shared auto playlists, but it sucks that a year later, there is no Hifi. A huge part of music is hearing the details and subtleties and I’d love more quality from my audio

[LawLee]

(Full disclosure: posted originally on a different thread)

The story of the Emperor's New Clothes comes to mind when I think about Spotify this point in time. If your not familiar, "wiki" it. It doesn't seem like they're listening or recognize that they're exposed.

There's an article coming out almost every day mentioning that they've missed their commitment to bring Hifi to their audience. Hifi at this point is the minimum daily requirement. Some reviewers are speculating that they're holding back because their competition is offering the feature at no cost. But they are wrong. They are offering superior quality to what Spotify was proposing. Very astute move, Apple, Amazon.  Other services like Tidal and Deezer lowered their prices and even offered a free tier. Spotify got caught off guard.

Personally, I believe if Spotify offered their Hifi tier at an additional cost some of those who are exiting the service would probably come back. Personally, it's going to be hard for me to return. Unfortunately, have seen what "real clothes" look like.

For the last few months, I've been giving consideration to upgrading my equipment because it seems like my speakers weren't cutting it with Spotify. I have two 5.1 home theaters setups in my house (one's on my desk) and I was looking at the prospect of replacing 9 of the speakers. Not cheap. Because Spotify was talking about Hifi and delaying, out of curiosity I auditioned Qobuz, Apple Music, Amazon Unlimited, and Deezer.

I almost fell out of my chair. I was blown away because I realized then I didn't need new equipment. I needed to feed my systems good quality streaming. Furthermore, I can most definitely hear the improvement when I go from CD quality to high res streaming. On top of that other services are offering offer Dolby Atmos Music,  Spatial Audio, and other things that aren't even being talked about by Spotify. CD quality is now the minimum requirement. They haven't even shown that they're going to release that anytime soon. That's sad. Upsetting your customers is not a business strategy.

Some reviewers think Spotify may table releasing Hifi for other things. If so they may have "jumped the shark". I think the erosion of their base will accelerate.  If they do this I don't think next year is going to be a very happy year for them. In some reviewer's eyes they were barely holding on to their frontrunner status. I suspect that's going to change.

I was rooting for them because I liked them very much. But at this point, I don't have a lot of faith in them. I hope they get this right because they've done so many things right. But if they get these next moves wrong they're going to look like Frankenstein-ish amalgam of Facebook with the long term success of Pandora. My $0.02...

[LawLee]

Plot - The Emperor's New Clothes

Two swindlers arrive at the capital city of an emperor who spends lavishly on clothing at the expense of state matters. Posing as weavers, they offer to supply him with magnificent clothes that are invisible to those who are stupid or incompetent. The emperor hires them, and they set up looms and go to work. A succession of officials, and then the emperor himself, visit them to check their progress. Each sees that the looms are empty but pretends otherwise to avoid being thought a fool. Finally, the weavers report that the emperor's suit is finished. They mime dressing him and he sets off in a procession before the whole city. The townsfolk uncomfortably go along with the pretense, not wanting to appear inept or stupid, until a child blurts out that the emperor is wearing nothing at all. The people then realize that everyone has been fooled. Although startled, the emperor continues the procession, walking more proudly than ever.

The "swindlers" of Spotify's tale are their marketing people. How embarrassing that they trotted out Billie Eilish and Finneas, all this slick copy, video, and empty promises. Man, the Eilish's have got to be embarrassed to be associated with this at this point. No clothes...

(Full disclosure: posted originally on a different thread)

[_macpharlain_]

The CD format was released on October, 1982. Spotify doesn't have the capability or desire to release a competitive product that delivers same quality of music that is nearing 40 years of age. There are competing products that also pay higher rates per stream to artists, perhaps we should look elsewhere for CD lossless quality. 

[Nir888]

Soon Tidal will have an option as Spotify connect

[Sptfffff]

Google tidal connect, exists already, works like a charm. Tidal sounds soo much fuller, detailed and engaging than Spotify (when listening on proper hardware of course, such as my Kef LS50 W2’s). I’m not willing to pay a premium price for mediocre sound quality any longer, so i quit. Such a shame though (on Spotify and their great app) for not giving ANY updates.

[Lucasguy11]

you've got 14 hours to live up to your statement before I swap my family over to Tidal. 

[BirchBark]

The Times Square ball drops in ~13 hours.  Spotify's been dropping the ball since their announcement in February.  Let the exodus begin ... such poor customer relations.

[_macpharlain_]

Don't worry, they're ignoring absolutely everyone. 

[Blueshound24]

If you want to get a canned answer back from Spotify on Twitter, feel free to post away. At least on Twitter you will occasionally get a response unlike here on the forums.

https://twitter.com/SpotifyCares/status/1472960033470222337?t=_6ai8H7jt4pbxZeT1bCIig&s=19

[Blueshound24]

And feel free to give the CEO, Daniel Ek, a piece of your mind as well. #BrokenPromises

https://twitter.com/eldsjal/status/1466045269808713739?t=rNP8z0INMGdZ35Pd5KcAkg&s=19

[taravasya2]

I am also very upset with such a frivolous, deceitful and unfulfilled statement about the introduction of hifi. However ... But I want to warn my "fellow musical weapons" against empty and excessive hopes.

Do not be so naive and be sure that absolutely all other services absolutely do not care about their subscribers. Come on, friends ... look around. The same**bleep** is going on everywhere.

For example, the developers of the deezer are constantly feeding tales about the introduction of Hifi on all devices, but in fact, it turns out that Hifi works on one of three devices(anf may be even less), even on those devices on which hifi support was officially announced. At the technical support forum, the deezer representatives simply say - the hifi works here, and in response users show them the spectra, on which the characteristic lossy cut is clearly visible.

For many years they have not been able to get a normal recommendation playlist from a Qobuz.

Tidal aggressively promotes artists who are not interesting and despite all the requests, they simply ignore them and continue to fill the main page with useless junk that has little to do with normal music ... Ah... Tidal is don't have support forum... )) 

All we can do is go to real concerts more often, and by this we can help guys and girls who create art and try to share it with us.

You should not take to heart the lies of the moneybags who do not care about their neighbors. They are the same in all areas.

With peace!!!!