Digitally Imported to increase premium subscription price for new listeners

By Rich Edmonds
last updated

Digitally Imported (www.di.fm) is a premium electronic and dance radio service with many streams for listeners to choose from. While the music service itself is free for everyone, there's the option to upgrade to premium should you wish to enjoy better quality audio, no advertisements, over 55 channels and more. Today, the company has announced a forthcoming price increase for new subscribers starting on March 1st.

If you fail to subscribe to DI.FM or let your account lapse, the new price to upgrade to premium is $7 a month or $70 a year. The current price is $4.99 ($49 a year), making this a slight increase of $2 a month. If you're already on premium, relax as you'll not be affected by the new pricing. Also, the increase hasn't yet taken place, so be sure to grab DI.FM premium while it's slightly cheaper.

Wanting to enjoy DI.FM on the move? Check out the official app for the platform, as well as a superb third party alternative.

QR: Beem

Rich Edmonds
Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.

38 Comments
  • Spelling in the article title, dude.
  • Haha well spotted
  • Never heard of this till now.
  • Woah! Your house is a giant rock :)
  • $2 on a $4.99 subscription is not a slight increase by any means 40% increase
  • ....and this is where marketing comes into play! Instead of saying they've raised prices by 40%, they can say they cost 25-50% less than the leading subscription services ;) Corrected my math...for some reason I thought it was $6 before.
  • +1
  • The last line in the first para seems a bit odd, doesn't it??
  • Yes. Yes it does. It will be come into editing as soon as they spot it.
  • Lol! I see what you did there.. :P
  • Hahaha
  • Don't pay for what I get free. I don't mind commercial's when with the push of a button I can change channels.
  • How do you listen to dance and electronic music normally? I have to use soundcloud... You have radio stations that play edm where you live?
  • I have more mp3's than I can listen to in a month. Plus having a HD radio gives me channels with no commercials. Living in the 3rd largest city in the U.S.A. has it's advantages. ✌
  • So this is the slut Spotify puts it in. Not worth any dollar of mine. 
  • Can you explain what that means? LOL.
  • It means Spotify fucks this dirty hoe like a 600 pound Gorilla. 
  • Spotify? Meh, not the same.
  • Spotify and DI.FM are as similar as oxycotin is similar to ecstasy.
  • I remember when DI was free... and the rage in the community when they introduced subscriptions. Somewhere around 2003-2004?
  • Listern I tell you and listern well if you want a clue. . . .
  • Spotify's free service was really good at one time, even having ads wasn't a problem. But then they got greedy and put ridicules restrictions such as only 10 hours a month to force people to go premium. My self and all my friends used Spotify but now its just a forgotten merry. Hope DI does not go the same way. I would prefer to have more ads. In this current financial climate I can not afford this monthly prices and wont be bullied into going premium. Especially when you end up paying for radio the same as say Netflix.
  • Spotify wasn't being greedy by having a listening cap. They have expenses and licensing fee to pay for. You shouldn't feel bullied because they asking you to pay for the service you so obviously enjoy.
  • Bollocks! Its pure greed! I don't use Spotify anymore and like I said, increase the adds for revenue! I love DI as it is but if they go the same way that Spotify went they can do one! I'm sure someone else will fill the gap!
  • This is what I get for holding off on subscribing until now.
  • I think it should always be made clear that subscribing to DI.FM also gets you premium access to SKY.FM and jazzradio.com. That is not a minor detail and helps add value to the subscription. And there are Windows Phone apps for all three.
  • Also rock radio?
  • I didn't know about RockRadio.com.  It looks like it is likely through the same company however it's still in beta and doesn't have premium services available yet.  If it is the same company then I would assume that it too will be included with the premium subscription.  Perhaps that's the reason for the price increase...  to add yet another service.
  • So it turns out that RockRadio.com is indeed connected to the others.  I installed the app on my phone and was able to log in using my premium account.  However, it doesn't seem that they have the premium streams online quite yet.  Looking forward to when they do!  Really excited to have a rock/metal/punk app to add to the collection.
  • Soundcloud.. *cough*
  • can anyone verify if the audio streaming quality is indeed better after paying a subscription compared to free. I am often noticing that the streaming quality of the free version with advertising is quite awful. The app is okay its just that the audio stream crashes a lot and I have to restart the stream or app all over again if I want to listen for longer periods.
  • While I never thought that the free streams had poor quality per se, I can confirm that the paid streams are indeed better.  Through premium you have access to the commercial free 64k-AAC, 128k AAC and 256k MP3 streams.
  • Thank you for lifting my veil of ignorance. If it weren't for this post I wouldn't have know about DI. Now, I've subscribed and am listening to excellent trance while programming at work. An annual subscription for the cost of a few lunches. LOVE IT.
  • lol we cover di.fm fairly often :P welcome aboard!
  • They want to raise the price but don't want to maintain their show bot. The community had to make their own show bot to keep the forum alive. Quite sad.
  • I thought about trying the service out, but that seems so expensive to get access to one genre of music.
  • I wish the di.fm app actually repects the close option on the backstack and closes the app immediately. Currently, it does nothing at all. (Lumia 920 + Black update). If anyone knows how to kill it immediately, I am all ears  
  • Three years ago I got the premium service for $90 for a two year subscription, last year they only offered one year at $50, now their prices going up again, this is worse than the oil industry, if they keep raising their prices every year, especially with todays economy and tons of free radio. they will lose many subscribers, current and future. I love the premium service, but this is getting out of hand, at least let their subscribers know why such huge increases, is it the cost of running and maintaining the servers, what gives.