Hi-Fi more expensive than competitors, why?

  • 22 August 2022
  • 7 replies
  • 276 views

Amazon Music, Apple Music, Tidal, Qobuz, and plenty more music streaming services now include CD-quality and even Hi-Res audio in their base $10/month plans. Meanwhile, Deezer still charges $15/month in the USA for CD quality, even though that’s obviously just the industry standard now. Why?


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7 replies

Hi

 

hos do I cancel my Deezer account

Userlevel 7
Badge +8

You can manage your subscription on this page:

https://www.deezer.com/account

If you also want to delete your account, you can do this on the same page at the bottom.

Userlevel 7
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Amazon Music, Apple Music, Tidal, Qobuz, and plenty more music streaming services now include CD-quality and even Hi-Res audio in their base $10/month plans.

Can you name another one, because I don’t know any others besides Deezer? Lossless Apple Music is not available on Windows, by the way. There are YouTube and Spotify though, both having more free and paying subscribers than the ones you listed and still not offering lossless streaming.

Deezer is currently rolling out their new Premium tier including HiFi streaming for 1 $/€ more while also abandoning lower adapted payments in other regional currencies.

Why Deezer still costs $15 per month in the U.S. is publicly unknown, but it may change in the future. In the beginning Deezer did not even offer their service in the U.S. and concentrated on the global market instead.

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So meanwhile the U.S. users can also benefit from Premium incl. HiFi for one dollar more, it seems.

Userlevel 3
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I think it also depends on we you live. Here in The Netherlands I pay 10,99 p/m. Or with an annual subscription 8,24. Cheaper than the others.

Qobuz is 14,99 p/m. Or with an annual subscription 12,50 p/m. (Family 24,99 /20,83).

Tidal is 9,99, but has no annual plans. Same goes for Amazon Music.

Userlevel 7
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Amazon Music, Apple Music, Tidal, Qobuz, and plenty more music streaming services now include CD-quality and even Hi-Res audio in their base $10/month plans. Meanwhile, Deezer still charges $15/month in the USA for CD quality, even though that’s obviously just the industry standard now. Why?

 

In the US, this isn’t accurate.

Deezer HiFi (Premium) is now $10.99/mo., ($8.24/month when paid annually). So $98.91 per year.

Apple is $99/year if purchased annually.

Qobuz is $129.99/yr.

Tidal is $20/mo for their top tier, $10/mo for HiFi. 

Amazon Music is $9.99/mo. unless you spend $139/yr for Prime, in which case it’s $8.99/mo or $89/year.

Spotify and YouTube Music don’t offer HiFi, and they aren’t cheaper. Spotify is $99/yr, YTM Premium is $119/year and Music Premium is $99/yr.

Amazon Music, Apple Music, Tidal, Qobuz, and plenty more music streaming services now include CD-quality and even Hi-Res audio in their base $10/month plans. Meanwhile, Deezer still charges $15/month in the USA for CD quality, even though that’s obviously just the industry standard now. Why?

 

In the US, this isn’t accurate.

Deezer HiFi (Premium) is now $10.99/mo., ($8.24/month when paid annually). So $98.91 per year.

Apple is $99/year if purchased annually.

Qobuz is $129.99/yr.

Tidal is $20/mo for their top tier, $10/mo for HiFi. 

Amazon Music is $9.99/mo. unless you spend $139/yr for Prime, in which case it’s $8.99/mo or $89/year.

Spotify and YouTube Music don’t offer HiFi, and they aren’t cheaper. Spotify is $99/yr, YTM Premium is $119/year and Music Premium is $99/yr.

I signed up for a month of Deezer Hi-Fi in the US on August 28th, 2022. It cost $15 a month. If the price has been lowered since then, that's great.

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Tidal Hifi Plus here is 12,16 euros a month (USD 12.10) on a yearly plan and has been that way for years. 

 

Deezer Hifi here is 10,16 euros a month (USD 10.12) on a yearly plan (actually decreased from my original subscription, which was more than 3 euros higher so more expensive than Tidal) but the newly announced increase will put it at 10,99 euros a month on a yearly plan (USD 10.94)

 

So Deezer is on a par with Tidal Hifi Plus here, but it’s clear that prices vary a lot based on location and even neighboring countries have widely different costs. We are a small country and Qobuz doesn’t even bother with us. But, what is here is less expensive than for Germany, Austria etc, where the salaries are higher.

 

There are some things that the Deezer Windows app needs to support like better navigation (think Tidal) and support bitperfect.. ASIO DAC drivers or WASAPI exclusive mode (seriously- if we’re paying for hifi, we expect that). Lately I listen to Deezer hifi over Bluesound and that solves a lot of annoyances but not all. 

 

The Deezer API doesn’t allow Bluesound to list anything in alphabetical order. It feels like nobody at Deezer cares to do anything more than they did on Day 1.