On the bright side, HiFi Plus subscribers will not be affected by the price increase. Tidal confirmed to Engadget that its most expensive plan will continue to cost $19.99 per month ever after the newly announced price hikes go live.
Speaking of which, all Tidal subscribers will have to pay more starting August 1, unless they have a HiFi Plus subscription, which includes Dolby Atmos, Sony 360 Reality Audio, MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) tracks, and high-fidelity FLAC support.
No changes have been reported for the free and student plans, nor for the discounted military membership. The price hikes will be going live globally starting next month, so this doesn’t seem to be a change that will only affect subscribers in select countries.
Now that Tidal confirmed it will raise the pricing of its standard plans, Spotify remains the only major music streaming service in the United States that hasn’t yet increased the prices of its plans. But that might not last long as Spotify’s CEO has already confirmed that his company is “ready to raise prices,” so we expect an announcement by the end of the year.