In the world of digital music streaming, it's a common trend to see prices on an upward trajectory. Breaking from this norm, Tidal has taken a bold move by announcing a cut in its monthly subscription fee, merging its HiFi Plus and standard HiFi plans into a single tier offering.
For those who are already subscribed to the HiFi plan at $10.99/£10.99/AU$12.99 per month, this means you will enjoy an audio quality upgrade from 16-bit, 44.1 kHz to 24-bit, 192 kHz without any extra cost. If you're subscribed to HiFi Plus which is priced at $19.99/£19.99/AU$23.99, the changes signify a substantial decrease in your Tidal subscription cost.
Bringing with it a number of additional benefits, the consolidated HiFi Plus tier will offer a wider array of FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) tracks coupled with support for audio formats like Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio. According to Tidal (via The Verge), these modifications take effect from April 10, 2024. Alas, Tidal's free access tier alongside the discounted tier available to first responders and military will be phased out.
Plans for Families and Students
In terms of family packages, the existing plan which costs $16.99/£16.99/AU$19.99 will also benefit from the HiFi Plus upgrade without any additional cost. However, the student discount plan, which is $4.99/£4.99/AU$5.99, will remain as it is without experiencing a quality upgrade.
If you're a DJ who uses Tidal's integrations, the new structure would see these tools offered under a DJ Extension package. This will come at an extra cost, meaning users will still pay the existing HiFi Plus fee every month.
With this change, Tidal is now in direct competition with Apple Music and Amazon Music as they all offer the lossless music quality for the same monthly price. On the other hand, you have Spotify which still uses lossy audio compression for its premium tier.
Spotify had made promises back in 2021 of introducing a lossless audio tier but has yet to fulfill it. Nonetheless, recent leaks indicate that a Spotify lossless tier, which might be called Spotify Supremium, is still in the pipeline. With its latest move, Tidal now stands ready for this potential competition.
Products you might also be interested in:
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