It has been more than two years since Spotify announced HiFi lossless subscription tier. The plan was originally set for a release later in 2021 but it is 2023, and the release is nowhere to be seen. Many fans of the service have started to get restless regarding when they can expect to use the tier. We finally have a new official statement but unfortunately, it still does not reveal anything new.

Gustav Söderström, Co-president at Spotify, was talking at The Verge's Decoder podcast where he was talked about the current status. The good news is Spotify HiFi has not been scrapped and is still on track for a release. The only reason its release has been delayed is due to unexpected changes in the industry. The company now has to adapt to those changes.

The changes here refer to the moves made by Spotify's rivals in the lossless music streaming space. Apple Music started offering lossless music without asking users to pay anything extra. Amazon Music followed the path and it also offered lossless music at the same price as the standard subscription. In fact, Tidal went on to announce a free subscription plan and charged $10 per month for high-quality music streaming. This pricing is the same as what users pay for Spotify Premium.

These are the reasons Spotify could not proceed with its plan to offer HiFi music streaming under a new tier that would cost more than the Premium plan. This new plan was reportedly called Platinum and would have cost $19.99 per month. It had some more benefits like Headphone Tuner, Audio Insights, Playlist Pro, and Library Pro to entice users.

Gustav Söderström went on to say,

"We announced it, but then the industry changed for a bunch of reasons. We are going to do it, but we're going to do it in a way where it makes sense for us and for our listeners. The industry changed and we had to adapt. We want to do it in a way where it works for us from a cost perspective as well. I'm not allowed to comment on our label agreements, nor on what other players in the industry did, for obvious reasons".