Tidal Is The Latest Streaming Service To Announce Price Hike
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, streaming services of all shapes and sizes experienced an unprecedented boom as more people needed ways to entertain themselves in quarantine. However, as things have been brought under control and homebodies have started venturing out again, the services have found themselves unable to keep up with their own meteoric growth, prompting cut-backs and, as is increasingly becoming the case, price hikes.
Music streaming service Tidal announced today through an email to subscribers that the cost of its mid-tier HiFi subscription will be increasing in price. Starting on August 1, the HiFi tier's cost will be raised by $1 from $9.99 to $10.99 per month. Additionally, subscribers to Tidal's family plan will also see a hike, as the cost of the subscription will be raised by $2 from $14.99 to $16.99 per month.
At the time of writing, it is not known if Tidal's highest HiFi Plus subscription, which currently costs $19.99, will be affected, though some HiFi Plus subscribers have reported receiving notifications of an incoming increase. It is also not known if these hikes are limited to particular regions, as users from multiple countries have reported that they received a message.
Streaming costs on the rise
Tidal is the latest streaming service to increase prices for existing subscribers. Apple Music increased its base monthly rate back in October 2022, and Amazon Music Unlimited increased rates on both its individual and student plans that following January. Based on recent industry comments, there may be more hikes on the horizon — back in April, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said in an earnings call that the popular music streaming service is prepared to enact a price hike, though the precise timing and degree of these increases would depend on negotiations with content partners.
"I think we're ready to raise prices," Ek said. "I think we have the ability to do that, but it really comes down to those negotiations."
This trend isn't only affecting music streaming platforms — this past June, Paramount announced that the cost of Paramount+'s ad-supported subscription would be increasing by $1 to $5.99 per month, though it also added the ability to purchase a year of service on this subscription for $59.99, a 16% discount over buying month-to-month. In a similar vein, there is also the matter of Netflix's ongoing password-sharing crackdown, in which users who share their account credentials with individuals outside of their home address, even family members, are being made to pay additional fees.