Spotify has had a killer year, if this report from Variety is to be believed. Apparently, the firm has seen an increase in users to the tune of 11 million in the last quarter of 2024, and it managed its first year of annual net profit. By any metric that's an impressive financial year — all while embroiled in criticism about how much it's been paying its artists in bundle deals and concerns around 'ghost music' making its way onto the platform.
As you might imagine, Spotify's CEO Daniel EK is extremely excited to preside over the company at a time of bounty. He emphatically says that Spotify is going to "double down on music in 2025" — but what does that actually mean?
Is it HiFi?
Spotify HiFi has been in the rumor mill for years at this point. A tier of streaming on Spotify that brings higher quality streams to its listeners, much like the hi-res streaming you'll find on the likes of Tidal and Apple Music and more of the best streaming services.
Yet, while other services provide what we want in the form of CD-quality audio and above, Spotify remains with significantly worse MP3 streaming that's kind on the data allowance but unkind on the ears.
Ek's little hint could be evidence that finally, Spotify could release the higher-quality streams to the world.
In the last couple of years, Spotify has been more interested in giving users more podcasts and audiobooks rather than anything related to music.
After all, in the last couple of years, Spotify has been more interested in giving users more podcasts and audiobooks rather than anything related to music. To "double down" could mean that this is the year Spotify brings its focus back to the music at hand, and, with some luck, some tastier streams.
After all, with a library of over 100 million tracks, it's unlikely you're going to be able to double that number.
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