That was my plan! “Suffer” two days. lol
Would be interesting to see if there will be any reaction from Qobuz
Torben
This is Tidal reacting to Qobuz and Apple Music. I don’t see any reason Qobuz would need to react.
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Mine renews on 11 March. Perfect timing it seems… I’ll just have to pay 9 Euro less on 11 April.
This is an interesting development.
I wonder how many regular streamers would be tempted by Tidal Connect?
I’d love to say having hires on a standard streaming service is a game changer (and my spending history supports an interest with hires, including Tidal Hifi Plus) but I’m skeptical.
My stronger feeling is that it’s sad the value of the recorded master is going backwards with each generation. I have mixed feelings with streaming: it’s great to flesh out a library with it, but it’s so much cheaper than paid I feel the market is distorted.
I really hope not, Qobuz is already cheap enough for what they offer. Ok there’s no gapless connect feature like there is with Tidal, but for usage within Roon, it’s already a bargain IMO.
The only thing that worries me is that the providers I see as being backed by large companies, namely Apple and Amazon music can squeeze the market by reducing costs, forcing the only two Roon compatible options ** to reduce prices further or just lose customers.
And then we’ll be screwed if one of both of them shut.
People flit between streaming services to save a few £$€ a month very quickly and Qobuz and / or Tidal are necessary for Roon for many people.
** Kkbox not included as it is not an option in my country.
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Apple and Amazon music can squeeze the market by reducing costs, forcing the only two Roon compatible options to reduce prices further or just lose customers.
And then we’ll be screwed if one of both of them shut.
People flit between streaming services to save a few £$€ a month very quickly and Qobuz and / or Tidal are necessary for Roon for many people.
Wholeheartedly agree, but “we” may be a broad church. There’s a niche that buys physical, a rump that ponies up for a streamer for convenience, other segments etc. If the Roon-partnered streamers go under, it would be the loss of a major add-on with Roon, but I guess Roon has presence in other forms of media and integration with audio kit. Personally I’d live with the FLACs already in my possession. If it meant I’d be compelled to pay a fair price for records again, all the better.
Music has gone from too expensive to too cheap too quickly.
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Nifty neato - except they are getting rid of active military/veterans discount so I guess we must have really been eating into their margins. Of course, they don’t come right out and say “we’re screwing veterans”…I mean, the Veterans Day banner once a year on their website has to mean something, right? 
“We will also be discontinuing your discount plan on June 10, 2024. On your first billing date on or after June 10, you will be subscribed to a TIDAL Individual plan at $10.99 (plus applicable sales tax)/month.”
How is charging everyone the same $10.99 price “screwing veterans”? They are lowering the price for everyone from $19.99 to $10.99 for high resolution. I guess if you don’t want high resolution and were paying only $5.99 with a discount for CD quality, you might think they are screwing you.
I’ll be paying $10.99 for Tidal high resolution, $10.83 for Qobuz high resolution, and zero for Apple Music high resolution. Seems like a good deal to me.
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I didn’t think it was that complicated. They once offered a discount and they are now taking it away. I received this message from them moments ago.
“Starting March 11, 2024, we’ll no longer offer new Military/First Responder discounts.”
I just cancelled with them. They suck anyway so I’m happy they motivated me to bother cancelling. I just moved everything to Qobuz and life is good again.
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In the US I’ve been paying $11.99 per month for Tidal HiFi Plus (Military). I don’t think paying $10.99 is going to bother me too much.
BTW, I left the militery 52 years ago, so was happy I qualified.
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Doesn’t matter when - you served - thank you for your service!
I was unhappy with them anyway so I guess I was just looking for some motivation to log in and cancel. Everything I had in Tidal existed in Qobuz so it was redundant for me - so in the end, it all worked out.
No email for me yet but it is a global change impacting all plans. I’m on the family plan in the UK. They must know I have been pricing up Apple Music…
Apologies where off-topic. I also know that this has been subjected to other forums.
TLDR: IMHO fair value is $30, but the market will bear only $12… the discount is because big tech dictates the market and has their side hustles like the iPhone.
This is based on 40 streams a day, and my historical stats support this. A digital album is at least $10 (and often much more!)
While I’m more than willing to keep the biz afloat, the record market and their remuneration is beyond my understanding (I’m an old fart in this space).
I wonder whether this is the great news that everyone appears to perceive.
Either Tidal was outrageously profiteering or its business model could be under severe pressure.
Virtually halving income could easily be an existential threat unless Tidal can increase its subscriber base very significantly.
A bad outcome would reduce the market to Qobuz and the wannabe monopolists.
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I think they just way over-priced Tidal HiFi Plus when they switched from MQA to Flac and raised the price to $19.99. That price made no sense with Qobuz at $10.83 and Apple Music at $10.99. Competition is a wonderful thing.
This is the response I got from Tidal in February when I asked for a better price. I reminded them that they were almost twice the price of Qobuz for the exact same product. I’m sure they heard that a lot.
Karla R. (TIDAL)
Feb 2, 2024, 7:49 AM EST
Hi Jim,
Thank you for contacting TIDAL Support!
We appreciate that you have shared your inquiry in regards to the price change inquiry. We periodically look at our pricing and make adjustments as needed. Since the very start, our goal at TIDAL has been to create quality experiences for artists and fans. TIDAL offers over 100 million songs and 650,000 videos, and the updated pricing reflects the full cost of providing the service in the current economic environment.
However, we offer a few different subscription options, and the price will vary based on the service tier. You can learn more about the subscriptions and pricing at tidal.com/pricing.
We will make sure your feedback goes directly to the correct team, thank you for your comments.
Regards,
Karla
TIDAL Support
Typical customer service response that I anticipated. No mention of a huge profit margin that they probably had built in.
This was my response…
"Not the answer I was looking for. But thanks for responding.
Jim"
Maybe Harmon will buy Tidal and bundle with Roon.
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Any reason to buy? I’m cool with an abundance of music, but $10+ for an album must be too steep. I get bored pretty quickly now.
Thanks for that information. Tidal’s statement before announcing the change that “the updated pricing reflects the full cost of providing the service in the current economic environment.” Implies that the reduction may be uncommercial and makes my concern even greater.
Let’s hope that the claim was mere bluster and the business has a future.
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The hi-fi plus tier initially paid 10% of your sub fee to your most streamed artist monthly, that changed to other incentives and support to upcoming artists.
Now there’s no hi-fi plus tier we’ll have to see what happens with this or whether it ends.
I see no winners here actually.
It will squeeze Qobuz, already we see people leaving them for Tidal.
6 months ago people were disgusted with Tidal for ending the Best Buy 50% off deal and moving to Qobuz, because the cessation email came from Best Buy, the entity they were contracted with.
My guess is that Tidal has no other choice than to lower its subscription prices otherwise they will push themselves out of the market.
I guess we’re be getting to the point where the companies with the biggest pockets will eventually remain.
Both Qobuz and Tidal are small. I fully support both of them. But even Spotify, being the largest by far, can’t seem to turn a profit. I am doubtful about what the future holds for the streaming market as a whole.
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