Tidal outshines Apple Music and Spotify with expanded student discounts
Tidal is just one of many music streaming services struggling to stand out in a market dominated by Spotify and Apple, with recent Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions followed by a more permanent discount today in the company's attempt to boost those all-important subscriber numbers.
While the platform has long allowed students to sign up for "Premium" and "HiFi" streaming at special prices, more people than ever before can now enjoy a cool and effortless 50 percent monthly discount. That's because high schoolers aged 16 and older can join "eligible" college students in paying $4.99 or $9.99 a month for a Premium and HiFi subscription respectively.
As far as we know, this is an unprecedented move, as the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music Unlimited are all available at reduced prices exclusively for students enrolled at an accredited college or university. Tidal's HiFi plan is another thing that Spotify and Apple Music are yet to take on, although Amazon has recently released an affordable Music HD service tier with millions of songs available in "Ultra HD" quality and a "high definition" library of more than 50 million tracks producing "lossless" audio.
Priced at $19.99 a month for non-students, Tidal HiFi comes with support for high-fidelity, lossless sound at a resolution of 44.1kHz/16 bit, as well as over 170,000 tracks from major labels available at the "highest possible resolution" (96kHz/24 bit) delivering truly "flawless" quality. In contrast, a Premium subscription, normally going for $9.99 a month, merely includes "standard sound quality", as well as HD music videos and "expertly curated" editorial.
In other words, high school and college students can get the best sound at the price of "standard quality" music streaming. And yes, Tidal also offers a 30-day free trial for all users.That's not a bad deal at all, and it's also worth highlighting that the service obviously works on any mobile device or computer, regardless of your preferred software platform.
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