Tidal is getting a price hike

Tidal is a music streaming platform, but many don't consider it a direct competitor to Spotify and Apple Music, primarily because it prides itself as an "artist-first" platform with a smaller library. It encourages independent artists and also touts better payouts for creators in general, so many opt to use it to better support their favorite musicians. Now, the service has announced an upcoming price hike.

In an email sent out to subscribers, Tidal has stated that it is bumping up its price to $12.99/month, up from $10.99/month, effective from August 3, 2026. This puts it on par with Spotify's $12.99/month, which was last increased in January 2026. In Europe, Tidal's price will jump from €10.99/month to €12.99/month too, making this an 18.2% hike across the U.S. and Europe.

Tidal's justification for the price hike is that this is its first price increase in three years, and that this increased revenue will further help support your favorite artists. It has also emphasized that if its subscribers think that the cost is too much, they can easily cancel their subscription from the linked settings page in the email.

Tidal has been securing a lot of goodwill from customers lately, as one of its core selling points is better payouts for your favorite artists. Recently, the company also published a new AI policy under which it would stop paying royalties to music that is fully AI-generated and will also label AI tracks as such, to protect the work of human artists. Similarly, any AI music that exploits an artist's voice or likeness will be taken down.

This stance is respectable in the current AI era, where even Spotify's CEO urged customers to embrace AI-generated music and stop calling it "slop". In light of these contrary stances, perhaps Tidal's price hike won't be such a bitter pill to swallow for customers who really do want to support their favorite artists and not give in to Spotify's AI push.