Just FYI: Tidal is consolidating their HiFi and HiFi Plus tiers

@overthemoon thanks. I'm curious to see how this all goes come April 10th. Looking forward to getting a little more for my money and dipping my toes gingerly into this Sony Spatial Audio stuff just for some fun. I'm definitely more into the "two-channel stereo" camp. As John Darko says endless on his website, High Rez audio is nice, but out of all the catalogs of streaming services, such higher resolution files make up just 10%. That was one reason I decided to just get the Hi-Fi tier. CD quality isn't bad. 

@moonwatcher Curiosity killed the cat.  I'm very pleased with Tidal.  I occasionally find versions and mix change that I'd wish they hadn't.

Ultimately my consideration for Deeze, Qobus or Spotify has to do with integration into Room or my streamer's app.

@moonwatcher agreed they should have just let the year term expire rather than cancel mid-year.  I never received an email notification unless spam screened it?I also bought one month of a third party software access to transfer all my Tidal info to Qobuz.  If I do re-sign up with Tidal I would keep  both services and not repeat that hassle.  I like that Qobuz has more hi-res offerings but like Tidal's catalog much better. Both integrate together seamlessly in Roon.

YAY. Just got the email. I love the lower price. The savings will pay for my Spotify subscription (I use that in the car and for walking, for podcasts and music including more casual listening without Roon).

On your first billing date on or after April 10, 2024, you’ll now pay just $10.99 (plus applicable sales tax)/month for all the same features you currently use on a TIDAL Individual plan.

This is because we’re making it easier for everyone to enjoy best-in-class sound quality by combining our HiFi and HiFi Plus tiers into a single subscription tier called TIDAL.

You will see these changes reflected on your Subscription page at account.tidal.com on your first billing date on or after April 10, 2024. Thanks for choosing to be a TIDAL subscriber.

@tksteingraber I was fortunate I saw an email from them a few months before my account was going to be cancelled unless I "signed up" for their monthly plan - and notified Best Buy I wanted a refund.

They went about it wrong. If they wanted to kill the idea of a yearly subscription it would have made customer service look far better had they honored the financial agreement you had made with them, until your subscription was up, and THEN told you to move to a monthly subscription model.

I know they got away with it legally probably due to the fine print, but shouldn’t payment up front have constituted a legally binding agreement with them to provide services for that year? I would have thought so, but I’m not a lawyer.

I was mad enough to *almost* cancel them, but I had jumped through several hoops with a 3rd party software to transfer all my old Spotify album favorites and playlists over to Tidal and didn’t want that hassle all over again.

@moonwatcher thanks for the update.  I was very unhappy with how Tidal dropped the Best  Buy program without notification or automatic refunds for the remaining months that were prepaid. To find out your Tidal membership has been dropped after thinking its a connection issues having to spend time trying to fix it, then calling Tidal (thats a joy) to find out they are not aware of any issues, open ticket for 2 days, find out program is cancelled, refund is handled by Best Buy, Best Buy unaware, open another ticket at Best Buy, several days latter follow up, eventually get a prorated refund less than the monthly fee remaining . Who cares at this point🤬 …Done!  I do miss Tidal content and features. SQ vs Qobuz in Roon the same here.  Will have to grit my teeth and add Tidal at some point…

What about those of us who anted up for a lifetime subscription a few years ago?  How will these new changes effect us?  

@overthemoon curious. What are you looking for with another streaming service that you feel Tidal isn't providing?  I want to try Deezer and Qobuz for the heck of it but wish they both had "Connect" apps to make using them easier. I heard Qobuz was going to have one soon. Then hopefully the hardware can have a firmware update to integrate it. 

I do like the fact that Deezer pays a user centric division of your monthly subscription to the artists that you actually listen to and not just a check to the labels for them to divvy as they see fit.  I listen to some eclectic stuff and it'd be nice to know my $$ is going to support those artists and not mostly Adele. 

@fuzztone I know. MQA might have been a useful thing for maybe about three years when most of the country was stuck with DSL speeds, but not now. Simply no need for any lossy compression schemes anymore with FLAC 24-bit/192KHz possible (if the labels provide such files to the streaming services). 

I figure Tidal jumped on the MQA bandwagon early to differentiate themselves from Apple and Amazon, whether most audiophiles understood it or not. 

I still wish you could buy a yearly subscription at a discount though. 

I find it ironic that they refer to themselves as best in class after they fell for MQA.

I just learned this too.  I had the Hi Fi plus subscription so while the are ending the military discount they are also lower the cost of the subscription I had.

I'm considering adding a second streaming subscription - Qobuz, Deezer or possibly Spotify.  My DAC integrates directly with all though Roon only integrates with Qobuz.  

I've preferred Tidal over Qobuz based on music library content.