Once upon a time, there was a streaming music service called Spotify that, in addition to offering access to a huge catalog of music, was fun from time to time. promises it didn’t keep to its users. For a while, these “jokes” had to do with podcasts that were announced but ultimately didn’t make it to the platform. However, ordinary users undoubtedly remembered the joke that almost three and a half years ago announced that in a few months (before the end of 2021) Hi-Fi sound quality would come to the platform. .

We all know what happened. Spotify planned to keep the standard tariff with standard quality and offer another, more expensive tariff for access to the catalog in HD. However, and in a confrontation the two companies have waged for years, Apple Music announced shortly after that it was starting to offer lossless audio on its standard plan without a price increase, a move Amazon joined within minutes. Clearly, this was a torpedo in the waterline of Spotify’s planswhich suddenly found it much more difficult to market a “Hi-Fi plan” that was more expensive than the competition.

The shock is understandable, but the time they choose to spend on the answer is not that much. In March of last year, more than two years after the announcement, Spotify co-chairman Gustav Söderström responded to a question about the issue by saying “something will come at some point.” Very specific, of course, that’s right. And time went on and a few months ago we reached three years, but then (and now) everything remains the same. With rumours, yes, but still.

FIGURE-2

As we read in ReadWrite, Rumors are returning about Spotify’s Hi-Fi plan arriving later this year. In addition, on this occasion, a rumor comes with information about its price, which would be five dollars more expensive than the standard plan. Rumors about Supremium, which could be the name of this subscription, said that the price difference will be compensated by adding access to 30 hours of monthly audiobook listening to the plan.

What surprised me the most about this publication is the response from a Spotify spokesperson, specifically this part of it: “”[…]We do not comment on speculation about possible new features and have nothing new to share at this time«. Speculation about possible new features? Oh, No one would say that we are talking about a feature that was announced by the company itself.

Personally, and this is obviously a personal theory, I think Spotify itself is behind at least some of these rumors and leaks, that some act as a reminder that they’re still in it, and that others act as balloon probes to gauge market reaction. Which of course It takes me to the beginning, to the story of Pedro and the wolf. And in both cases, after so many false warnings, the real goal is to induce a lot of apathy among its recipients. Among those, I specify, I include myself.