Apple charging 30% more for Tidal on iOS
Tidal has maintained that they have not raised their prices, according to a rep from the streaming service.
The much-criticised streaming app has come under fire when it was revealed that purchasing the app via iTunes incurred an additional 30% fee. However, Tidal has claimed that the mark-ups are directly related to Apple’s App Store policy.
The app on iTunes is advertised at $12.99 for the standard Tidal Premium subscription, while Tidal HiFi is priced at $25.99. However, the Tidal website is still offering the original subscription rates of $9.99 for Premium and $19.99 for HiFi, all on a monthly rate. Australian users are paying $23.99 a month for HiFi.
A spokesperson has provided a statement in regards to the higher fees, explaining that subscribers can bypass the 30% fee if they make their purchase through Tidal’s website.
“Apple’s policy is to charge TIDAL subscribers a 30% fee on your monthly subscription, for the life of your subscription, if you activate your subscription through the TIDAL app on your iPhone that you have just downloaded.
“You can easily get the $9.99 or $19.99 pricing by first creating your TIDAL account through TIDAL.com, then go to the App Store to download the TIDAL app. Once it’s downloaded you simply hit ‘Login’ instead of ‘Sign Up’ and you will be in the correct pricing plan.”
The news of these increased prices coincide with rumours of Apple interfering with Tidal’s iOS updates, in a bid to grant exposure to Apple’s Beats Music set to relaunch in June.
Various publications have reported that Apple deliberately drove Tidal out of the iPhone Top 700 apps, after stalling the approval for their iOS app updates.
Vice President of iTunes Content, Robert Kondrk, allegedly told Universal Music executives that Tidal artists’ music – including the likes of Rihanna, Kanye West and Alicia Keys – would not be promoted as featured artists on iTunes should they choose to promote material exclusively via Tidal.
However, a spokesperson has disputed the claims that Apple scrambled Rihanna’s music following her release of American Oxygen onto Tidal, consequently placing her songs out of commission for a short period of time.
Yesterday, Tidal announced that it would feature live stream coverage of Jay Z’s B-Sides. The stream is set to launch May 13, and will feature a selection of never-before performed tracks or tracks that have not been performed live in over a decade. To be eligible to join, members are required to create a Tidal playlist and share it on Twitter using the hashtag #TIDALXJAYZ.