Tidal just devoured Apple and Spotify’s breakfast and ran away with the cereal box — it’s cut the price of its top-level HiFi tier in half, making it the same price as both of those other options.
That not only makes it a better option than Spotify with more features for a similar price, but it also brings its superior FLAC file formats and HiRes library to trounce Apple Music.
Apple Music beware
Tidal has traditionally not been cheap. The top-level HiFi Plus tier (which I pay for) was $20.99, almost double the cost of an Apple Music subscription. For the price, however, you got some of the best sound quality in the business, an excellent selection of music, and some exemplary audiophile features like external DAC settings.
Now, Tidal has combined two of its subscription tiers — the aforementioned HiFi Plus tier and its HiFi tier — into one, bringing the price down along the way. That new price will net you all of the features of the more expensive plan, including HiRes FLAC and Dolby Atmos playback. There is also Tidal’s DJ extension, allowing the mixing of the 110 million HiRes tracks available in Tidal’s library, although you’ll have to pay an extra $9 per month for that.
Where does this leave Apple Music? This new plan is the same price as Apple Music's streaming plan and provides notably better sound quality. Apple Music boasts fewer tracks as well, surprisingly, with Apple only noting ‘100 million songs’, of which not all are Lossless. Tidal's increased sound quality and support for a wider range of Spatial Audio equipment might convince more people to switch now that the price is better as well. The only way to save a bit more on Apple Music is to pick it up as part of the Apple One bundle, which is a good deal more expensive but includes iCloud, Apple News Plus, Apple TV Plus, and more at a discounted rate compared to purchasing them individually.
As for Spotify, while it’s got that same 100 million track count as Apple Music, it also has its extensive podcast and now audiobook library. If you’re after HiRes streaming, however, then Tidal is the way to go — Spotify is still yet to offer any kind of high fidelity option.
For people like me, who’ve dutifully paid that $20.99 a month for the last few years, this is a welcome change and saving on what was a very expensive music streaming service. For those ready to switch, now could well be the moment that you’ve been waiting for.
