Spotify Hi-Fi Audio Plan Still in ‘Early Days’; Deluxe Plan to Deliver More Features, CEO Says

Spotify has confirmed that it is working on a “deluxe” version of its subscription that offers hi-fi (high fidelity) audio streaming, but the company is still in “early days” of planning, CEO Daniel Ek said during the company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday. When launched, this plan is speculated to be priced considerably higher than its current Premium plan. The Swedish audio streaming service first announced its decision to introduce a high-end subscription service dubbed Spotify HiFi in 2020.

Spotify’s “Deluxe” Plan

During the earnings call, Spotify’s CEO revealed that a new subscription plan, that would sit above its Premium plan, is in development. “The plan here is to offer a much better version of Spotify”. However, the official did not delve into details of its rollout timeline.

As per the CEO, this new subscription would be a “deluxe” version of Spotify, offering hi-fi audio, and other benefits, in addition to existing features of Spotify Premium. While he remained cryptic about other offerings included in this plan, previous reports have speculated that the streaming service could bundle a feature that lets users generate playlists using artificial intelligence (AI) and among other tools.

The plan won’t be easy on the pocket, according to Spotify’s CEO, who said that the deluxe plan could cost at least $5 (roughly Rs. 419) more per month than Spotify Premium, which costs $11.99 (roughly Rs. 1,000) for the Premium Individual plan.

“Think something like $5 above the current premium tier. So it’s probably around a $17 or $18 price point, but sort of a deluxe version of Spotify that has all of the benefits that the normal Spotify version has, but a lot more control, a lot higher quality across the board, and some other things that I’m not ready to talk about just yet,” Ek said during the earnings call.

Notably, Spotify’s competitors, such as Amazon Music and Apple Music, offer lossless audio streaming without any added cost. However, both platforms are only available via a paid subscription and do not have an ad-supported free plan which Spotify offers, albeit with certain restrictions.

The CEO further revealed that a “good subset” of the streaming service’s total user base wants a “much better” version of Spotify. Its new subscription plan is said to tackle this area, offering more controls than just high-res audio streaming.