Tidal Pricing and the EU

Streaming Audio
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Hi,
In a recent (23rd December) article from John.Darko, he discusses the Tidal service tiers, as the FOC provision to reviewers has been ended.

In the article Tidal Hi-fi or Hi-fi Plus? It’s an easy choice! | Darko.Audio he discusses Tidal Plus at €13.99/month and Hifi at €7.49/month, and I thought hold-on is that a promotional offer, but no that’s the price available to John in either Lisbon or Berlin, both EU countries.
For the last number of years, I have been paying €19.99/month for Hifi Plus (based in Ireland), and I know this tier is £19.99/month in the UK and $19.99/month in the US.

Tidal cannot provide a suitable explanation as to why the same Internet-based service, that has no physical deliverable element in any of these countries, has different pricing applied, just it uses your IP address to determine your location.
This is a service delivered over the Internet, there is no local Customer Support involving personnel etc. no data centres for each country, etc., unless they can explain what is different, but I have had 6 responses from Tidal and they haven’t been able to justify the differential pricing.

I understand why different pricing for those countries using different currencies such as £, $, Yen etc. but would have expected an EU-wide price, as you get with Amazon, Apple, Spotify, Netflix, Paramount+, Disney, Qobuz, Roon etc.

So what are other EU-based forum members paying for Tidal Plus?
Any other regions?

Also, the UK is getting the worse deal here, as there never was $ to £ equivalency, € to £ parity existed briefly a few years ago, and is now back to a steady 0.85, certainly under 0.9 but above 0.8).

2 Likes
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I’m in the USA and pay $20.00 a month for hifi i’m ok with that

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Don’t read into my posting that I am unhappy with the €19.99/month I have been paying for several years, its the lack of transparency regarding different pricing across the EU I want to understand.
It’s like there being a different price in Texas to that in California or New York for the same service.

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I pay 19,99€ in Finland. I actually thought this was the euro-zone price but seems that this is not the case.

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Yes, hence my ‘hold on’ moment when reading John.Darko’s article.

Have written to him, to see if he will query Tidal about their EU pricing, as it doesn’t seem right.

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I suspect it’s a mistake in the article. As far as I can see, it’s €10.99 and €19.99 for the whole of the Eurozone.

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Not sure if relevant here but if you sign up through the app on an iPhone apple adds to get their share on it. I always sign up through the web page to get best pricing. Go with Qobuz instead that sounds better and is cheaper.

Web says 199SEK/month in Sweden so roughly 18EUR.

3 Likes
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In Denmark we pay DKK. 199,00 per month = € 26,75 :flushed:

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‘ As an EU national, a trader cannot charge you more when you buy a product or service just because of your nationality or country of residence . Some price differences can be justified if they’re based on objective criteria and not just on nationality. For example, differing postage costs may mean you pay more for delivery in one country than in another. However, traders may still set different net sale prices in different points of sale, such as shops and websites, or may target specific offers only to a specific territory within a Member State. Under EU rules, all these offers must be accessible for consumers from other EU countries .’

This means that you must be able to get the contact from the eu country you prefer and Tidal has to stick to that price.

1 Like
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Thank you for this.
I knew there was some rules on EU Pricing and price equality for a equivalent services, but couldn’t remember where.

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They can only justify a price difference if the product they offer is different. This is the reason why certain companies sell slightly different products in different countries so that they can justify a different price. For streaming services I can’t see a difference really so if they have an offer in Spain or Finland you should be allowed to get that.

That’s the essence of the EU. We are one.

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Chances there are restrictions on availability of material due to licensing, which Tidal could easily cook up in order to charge whatever they think the market will stand in different EU countries. Just like they do globally.

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And that’s my understanding too

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Then be transparent about it, but at present they are not and not explaining the differences and reason for price differentiation.

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Not just Tidal at it, HBO Max service is €5/month in Romania but in Sweden it will set you back the equivalent of €9/month. HBO Max will of course argue that the catalogs vary between the two countries thereby justifying the price differential.

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The point is that if they do that and make e.g. Portugal cheaper, that you as a say Finish citizen must be allowed to get the contract as it is sold in Portugal for that price. What Tidal / Netflix agrees with license holders is completely irrelevant.

I’m now doing a sing along with Beethoven 9 …

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Maybe I am the first German to reply here, but rest assured, we pay the same as everyone else. The prices indicated in the opening are simply wrong.

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Generally here in the UK we are treated as cash machines or one arm bandits that always payout.

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Tidal Hi-Fi is a whopping £3.15 / month here in Thailand, or £5.75 / month if you want to live large with Hi-Fi Plus :smiley:

OTOH, you wouldn’t believe what a decent bottle of wine costs in the local supermarket…

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