Spotify's HiFi tier could finally be about to launch

So, there are 2 school of thoughts here. The layoffs happened because Spotify is getting ready to launch HiFi and that is going to cost them - hence reduce people and save costs. The other thought is they laid off to save cost and will not launch HiFi. No one other than Spotify knows which one is the correct one.

The competition from Apple Music and Amazon messed them up. But like @loomisjohnson mentioned - none of the other providers can match their interface OR Connect. IF AM and Amazon were purely streaming based, then they could not afford what Spotify is doing. Moving to FLAC means a lot more server space and royalties. I really don't mind paying $19 for Spotify HiFi. At least the quality would be better and more royalties to the artists (that's the hope). Some music that I absolutely love - I end up buying on CD/downloads.

Server space - FLACs probably take more space than the currently compressed files. That was the reasoning.

The reasoning behind royalties - Spotify has been having licensing issues with the content providers, which was part of their claim for delaying their HiFi.

These are assumptions on my side.

I will happily pay them $20. Their UI is unmatched. Spotify recommendations are also so much better than Tidal and Qobuz, at least for my listening preference. Best of all, their Connect feature rocks! It is so seamless.