How does Tidal's HiFi and Tidal Rising payout structure differ from its standard tier payouts?
Executive summary
TIDAL’s “HiFi/HiFi Plus” era promised higher per‑stream payouts (commonly reported around $0.013 per stream in 2025) and experimental programs that routed extra subscriber money to artists — notably a Direct Artist Payout (DAP) that gave HiFi Plus subscribers’ top artist 10% of their $19.99 fee — while the Tidal Rising program focuses on promotion and development rather than different per‑stream mechanics [1] [2]. Recent pricing consolidations have folded high‑res features into a cheaper single tier, which changed how those earlier payout features could operate in practice [3] [4].
1. HiFi, HiFi Plus and the headline per‑stream rates
TIDAL has been cited by multiple industry trackers as paying substantially more per stream than many rivals — roughly $0.013 per stream in 2025 — a figure used by royalty calculators and reports to illustrate that, all else equal, TIDAL’s baseline per‑stream pool is higher than Apple Music or Spotify averages cited by the same commentators [1] [5]. Those averages are aggregate estimates; sources note precise artist income still depends on label deals, geography and splits beyond TIDAL’s gross pool [1].
2. Direct Artist Payout (DAP): a structural departure from per‑stream math
TIDAL experimented with a Direct Artist Payout model tied to its then‑top tier (HiFi Plus): for each $19.99 HiFi Plus subscriber, 10% of that monthly fee would be paid directly to the single artist that subscriber listened to most — a fund routed outside the ordinary pro‑rata per‑stream pool [2]. TechCrunch reported TIDAL called this an “imaginative” departure from the industry’s fraction‑of‑a‑cent per‑play norm, but also flagged limitations: it only helped a subscriber’s top artist and may have underperformed because TIDAL’s total subscriber base is small relative to Spotify or Apple [2].
3. Tidal Rising: promotion and development, not a separate royalty engine
Tidal Rising is a curated program that supports emerging artists with promotion, documentaries and other career development assets; alumni include names like Alessia Cara and 21 Savage [2]. Available sources describe Tidal Rising as a discovery and marketing initiative rather than an alternate per‑stream payout mechanism — it accelerates exposure and may indirectly increase streams and earnings, but it is not presented as a direct, separate royalty payment structure in the reporting [2]. Sources do not mention Tidal Rising having a distinct per‑stream tariff or fixed subsidies that parallel DAP.
4. Why the DAP model raised controversy and its practical limits
Coverage stressed two implicit constraints: DAP rewarded only each subscriber’s single most‑listened artist, which made payouts highly concentrated and potentially counterintuitive; and the model’s impact was constrained by TIDAL’s comparatively small market share (reported under 2% globally at the time), limiting the aggregate dollars available via that route [2]. TechCrunch explicitly suggested those factors may have contributed to TIDAL cutting back DAP later [2].
5. Pricing consolidation and what it means for artist payments
Beginning in 2024–25 TIDAL simplified tiers, rolling high‑res and spatial audio into a single lower‑priced plan (about $10.99/£11 per month) and folding HiFi/HiFi Plus features together [3] [4]. The Verge and What Hi‑Fi? reported that consolidation reduced the distinctiveness of the old HiFi Plus tier — which had housed DAP — and altered the context in which subscriber‑tied payouts could function; current reporting shows those earlier per‑tier experiments no longer operate in the same form after pricing changes [4] [3].
6. Bottom line for artists: different levers, different effects
TIDAL’s distinct approaches have meant three different ways an artist could benefit: (a) higher headline per‑stream averages on the platform’s overall royalty pool (estimated ~$0.013/stream in 2025) [1] [5]; (b) experimental direct payouts (DAP) that diverted a fixed share of certain subscribers’ fees to a single artist — an approach that concentrated rewards but was limited and later curtailed [2]; and (c) promotional lifts through Tidal Rising that can increase streams but are not a separate royalty formula [2]. Sources do not provide a unified accounting that translates these programs into a single dollar figure for artists — the actual income effect depends on listener mix, label splits and changes in TIDAL’s tier structure [1] [2].
Limitations: available sources do not provide official, current TIDAL payout policy documentation or per‑stream formulas after the pricing consolidation; reporting relies on industry estimates and coverage of TIDAL’s experimental programs [1] [2] [3].