Before the feature disappeared from our sightline entirely, there were some subtle clues that its release date might have been nearing. In May, some users started reporting a glitchy “HiFi” icon in Spotify’s app, but that ultimately turned out to be nothing. Then, in August, an onboarding video for the feature leaked online—surely a sign that its release was imminent?
But lo, the year has all but ended, and HiFi is still not HereYet. What gives?
Broken promises aside, lossless audio is kind of the biggest deal there is for a certain niche community of audiophiles, and its omission from Spotify’s platform is glaring at this point—particularly considering the fact that it’s currently offered by some of the platform’s biggest competitors, including Apple Music and Tidal. In fact, as The Verge points out, that might actually be what’s causing the holdup: By beating Spotify to the draw and offering lossless playback on its own service at no extra charge, Apple Music has essentially wiped out Spotify’s financial incentive to launch a paid tier.
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But then again, it’s always possible Spotify is still fine-tuning the feature and planning for a 2022 or release, hoping that we won’t notice the missed deadline. In any case, it seems like it’s probably a good time to get Billie Eilish on the phone so she can tell us how we’re even supposed to think about enjoying “Happier Than Ever” with this inferior sound quality.