It sure does look that way, or maybe reneged is a better word, reneged twice in 5 years that is. As such I've renamed this thread from "Spotify launching HiFi lossless streaming in 2021" to "Spotify launching HiFi lossless streaming ever?".
Spotify's shares are down 50% YTD, though they were up 6% today after their Investor Day event in which founder Daniel Ek predicted annual revenue of over $100 billion inside of 10 years.
Revenue in 2021 was $10.9 billion, so that will be an incredible meteoric rise if it comes true. What's interesting in the context of this thread, as well as that of the related "Sobering Look at the Music Industry in 2021" thread, is that Ek made almost no mention of music streaming as providing this predicted growth. Rather, they've pinned their hopes and dreams on podcasts, and now add to that audiobooks too.
So Spotify is telling investors that with 40% gross margins and 20% operating margins they will go from losing money every quarter to $100 billion in annual revenue in 10 years powered by podcasts and audiobooks. They cite a 300% rise in podcast revenue in 2021 as evidence of the potential there.
I'll believe it when I see it, but maybe thats because I admit I've never been either a podcast or an audiobook type of guy, and I really don't see that changing with this old dog.
Sadly to bring it back on topic for this thread, not only did Spotify renege on lossless streaming in 2021, they are now quickly approaching 6 months into 2022 with just one vague mention of it still being on their roadmap way back in January, and no further details let alone an actual timetable, or an admission of what exactly the holdup/challenges are that have caused them to renege.
I am beyond unimpressed by a company that twice in 5 years reneges on something that competitors both large and small have managed to roll out with little difficulty. I can only conclude they were never really interested in being a music streaming platform unless it was wildly profitable, and their top execs and investors are completely infatuated with making some huge greedy killing much more so than they are in delivering a sustainable music streaming platform that is fair to all stakeholders.
I've upgraded my Qobuz subscription to Sublime to realize up to 50% savings on download purchases, and I'll keep my money with them as long as they are there. If we come to an unfortunate day when the little guys like Qobuz cease to exist, I'll listen to my downloads and my disc rips, and just leave it at that, unless Amazon or Apple have improved their offering by then.
Spotify saw its stock jump over 6% on Wednesday after the company revealed its 2021 podcast figures.
finance.yahoo.com