TIDAL tries getting momentum back by halving its prices

A particular video that went viral over Youtube affected Tidal’s user base in quite a bad way, so much so that Tidal tries getting its momentum back by halving its prices, introducing a new free tier and splitting its remaining HiFi tiers in two.

• TIDAL Free (US-only): For the first time, music fans can now try TIDAL at no cost, with access to our entire music catalog and playlists, with limited interruptions.

• TIDAL HiFi: At $9.99/£9.99/AU$11.99 month, this tier offers interruption-free access to HiFi sound quality. With TIDAL HiFi, members have offline capabilities, access to features like TIDAL Connect and My Activity, which provides individualized daily listening insights.

• TIDAL HiFi Plus: For $19.99/£19.99/AU$23.99 month, HiFi Plus features everything the HiFi tier offers, in addition to the introduction of fan-centered royalties and direct-to-artist payments. HiFi Plus will also continue to provide access to the best-in-class immersive sound formats (Dolby Atmos Music & Sony 360 Audio Recordings) and Master Quality Authenticated (MQA), alongside early access to exclusive offerings and future features.

Tidal is also remolding its royalties program: “Starting in 2022, TIDAL is taking a different approach on royalties. In this new model, royalties attributed to HiFi Plus subscribers will not be aggregated. Rather, royalties will be paid based on the actual streaming activity of individual HiFi Plus subscribers as opposed to the industry accepted method of aggregating streams, empowering fans to play a larger role in the success of their favorite artists.”

Beginning today, TIDAL will launch monthly direct-to-artist payments. This innovative program will give artists access to an additional payment stream, so they can benefit directly from their biggest fans on TIDAL. Each month, a percentage of HiFi Plus subscribers’ membership fees will be directed towards their top streamed artist, which they will see in their activity feed. This direct-to-artist payment is in addition to their streaming royalties.

Starting in 2022, TIDAL is taking a different approach on royalties. In this new model, royalties attributed to HiFi Plus subscribers will not be aggregated. Rather, royalties will be paid based on the actual streaming activity of individual HiFi Plus subscribers as opposed to the industry accepted method of aggregating streams, empowering fans to play a larger role in the success of their favorite artists.

All artists must opt-in to access direct artist payouts, either through TIDAL’s invite-only direct registration option or through one of TIDAL’s distribution partners. TIDAL will continue to open access to the program in the coming months, with information being made available for Artists with music available on TIDAL at TIDAL.com/ForArtists.

Tidal’s new HiFi tiers will be available starting with today.