
Söderström commented that Spotify had to postpone the release of this high-end tier of music streaming in order to better adapt to the market. He gives very few details from there on out, but HiFi costs and deals with music labels were mentioned as factors too.

Regardless, Spotify is still one of the staple music streaming platforms, so it is doing pretty good even without HiFi songs.
Why distant? Well, because Spotify is currently quite busy with redesigning major UI elements or figuring out ways to incorporate AI into its platform. One of the major talking points of the interview is centered around the fact that Spotify is looking to copy some of TikTok’s homework. While HiFi audio is certainly a great selling point, it doesn’t seem to be that important for now.