TIDAL are killing their $19.99/month HiFi Plus subscription, and bringing HiRes FLAC and Dolby Atmos streaming to all subscribers.

Currently TIDAL has two main paid subscriptions (alongside Free, Family, Student and Military/First Responder variants). Both subscriptions offer ad-free access to the full catalogue of songs and videos, plus downloads for offline listening. TIDAL HiFi tops out at 16-bit, 44.1 kHz FLAC streaming and is available for $10.99 per month. TIDAL HiFi Plus costs an extra $9 per month ($19.99 per month total) for access to HiRes FLAC and Dolby Atmos streaming, up to 24-bit, 192 kHz.

Globally, from April 10, 2024, both HiFi and HiFi Plus subscriptions are merging into one tier simply called TIDAL. This one tier will be priced at the lower $10.99 per month subscription, but include the higher resolution streaming currently only available on the higher model.

Existing subscribers to HiFi and HiFi Plus will be transitioned automatically to the new tier, potentially saving you $9 per month, while still getting all of the same features. Subscribers to HiFi Family and HiFi Plus Family will be transitioned to the new Family subscription for $16.99 per month, the same price as HiFi Family, while getting all of the same features as the more expensive model. Likewise, HiFi Student and HiFi Plus Student members will be transitioned to the lower $4.99 per month model.

Unfortunately this change is removing a couple of tiers. On April 10 TIDAL are killing their ad-supported Free tier. Users of TIDAL Free will need to start paying up or changing streaming service. TIDAL are also ending their Military/First Responder discounted subscriptions. Existing subscribers will keep the discounted rate until June 10, 2024, at which point they will be transitioned to the $10.99 TIDAL plan.

Those who use TIDAL’s DJ integrations will still be able to access the feature as a $9 per month add-on on top of TIDAL subscriptions. If you’ve used the feature in the last 90 days, you will automatically be charged for the add-on. From April 10, you will be able to remove the add-on at account.tidal.com. To ensure you are not charged, just make sure you downgrade from HiFi Plus to HiFi before April 10. The add-on is not available on top of Student subscriptions.

The move to essentially make subscriptions cheaper is a surprising one, with many streaming services quietly creeping up prices, particularly in the past two years. That being said, this move makes sense, as Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer and other stores are bundling lossless audio into their base premium tier. This move could leave Spotify as one of the only streaming services to charge extra for higher quality audio, if they go through with their rumoured Supremium tier.

Share your own hi-fi music to TIDAL, with free FLAC distribution available on RouteNote!