Tidal slashes Hi-Res streaming prices to bring the fight to Spotify

Bowers & Wilkins PX7 review.

QUICK SUMMARY

Tidal is set to combine its two HiFi subscription tiers into one package. The Tidal Plan offers lossless audio at the same price as a regular Spotify subscription. 

We have been begging Spotify to bring lossless audio to the masses for years now, but one of its rivals, Tidal, has just gone one better. 

The service has always been for hardcore music aficionados willing to pay a bit more to get the best service, but its latest announcement has us sitting up and taking notice. Tidal is offering lossless audio at a price matching the standard Spotify Premium subscription. Wow.

In a statement on its website, Tidal has announced that starting from April 10th it will be consolidating its HiFi and HiFi Plus tiers into one subscription plan. This one plan to rule them all will be known as the Tidal Plan and feature access to "all our current streaming features, including all premium audio formats." 

If you've got a pair of the best headphones, the chance to listen to your favourite tracks in lossless quality for $10.99 a month is pretty much essential. The HiFi Plus plan is currently $20.99 and for Tidal to essentially cut that in half is incredible.

(Image credit: Rik Henderson / Future)

While we only have the US price so far, Tidal has promised to update its pricing globally so I'm confident we'll see something similar in the UK too. Spotify does have its perks, like audiobooks and loads of fun social features, but this change does make Tidal seem like the de facto choice for serious music lovers. Of course, most people have all of their playlists already saved on Spotify so it needs an incentive like this to tempt users away. 

At a time when we see streaming services (for both music and TV) putting their prices up, to see a platform cutting prices for those on the HiFi Plus plan and giving those already on the HiFi plan what is essentially a free upgrade, is a really nice touch. 

If you want access to Tidal's catalogue on DJ hardware and software, you will need to pay an extra $9 a month for its DJ add-on, but for the average user, this is a massive reason to turn to Tidal.