Tidal Prices Drop (Significantly)
Tidal built its empire on the fact that it offered higher quality, lossless audio at a time when Spotify and Apple Music did not. Now that Apple Music has introduced support for lossless audio, including high-resolution lossless audio, Tidal is changing its game and ditching its Premium (HiFi Plus) offering in favor of a single plan that bundles all of its offerings together.
The move will reduce the cost of premium audio on Tidal to just $10.99 per month for individuals and $16.99 per month for family plans. This should put the service on par with competing services that also offer lossless audio quality, such as Apple Music ($10.99 per month), and it would make it slightly more expensive than the current lowest-tier individual plan that Tidal offers . The downside is that you will get access to HiFi Plus music no matter what. This change will also do away with Tidal’s free listening option, which may disappoint some users.
These pricing changes are a huge step forward for Tidal, especially if you’ve been eyeing the streaming service but didn’t want to pay $20 a month just for higher quality audio. Since Apple Music has added lossless audio capabilities, it has become a significant competitor to Tidal on the quality spectrum. However, both platforms have their pros and cons.
Comparison of Apple Music and Tidal after price drop
For starters, both Tidal and Apple Music have vast music catalogs, with over 100 million songs available on each platform. And non-audiophiles probably won’t see much of a difference between Tidal and Apple Music’s high-resolution, lossless options (both still require external amplifiers to take full advantage of the increased quality).
However, when comparing Tidal and Apple Music, you’ll notice that both apps approach listening to music very differently. Of course, they both have a lyrical system that makes it very easy for you to remember the words to a song. There is some debate about which one is better, although both seem to do the job quite well. It’s worth noting that Tidal lyrics tend to sync better than Apple Music and appear in real time as you listen to the song.
The big differences, however, are how you discover new music on both platforms. Sure, you can just listen to the same songs you like over and over again, but streaming services like Tidal and Apple Music place a big emphasis on expanding your song library.
Apple Music relies heavily on algorithms like those seen in Spotify, which create playlists of similar songs you might like, while Tidal looks at your favorite tracks and listening data, then lets you create customized mixes on based on this information. It’s similar, but Tidal definitely puts a lot more emphasis on how the user edits these playlists than Apple Music. This makes finding new music on Tidal a little more challenging compared to Apple Music, so users who aren’t as savvy with audio and navigating discographies will likely have an easier time working with Apple Music’s generated playlists.
Audio parameters are also of great importance. And while Apple Music offers a basic equalizer, Tidal digs a little deeper, offering more granular control over your audio, including separate audio balance controls and surround effects.
There’s also the matter of the “lossless audio” that both streaming services claim to offer. However, despite Apple’s lossless branding, it still compresses audio to AAC 256 kbps. Thus, Tidal provides more detail and nuance than Apple Music. Audiophiles who have been wanting to take things a step further will be happy to hear about Tidal’s pricing change, as it makes accessing truly lossless music even easier than before. The price change will take effect on April 10, so you’ll have to wait to take full advantage of it.