# TIDAL new music streaming service



## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

I have been using Spotify Premium for sometime and saw all the hype by Jay-z, Madonna etc for this newly launched music service..........*finally with CD quality streaming, this is the holy grail of music streaming*

There is 30 day free trail so I signed up for premium service $19.99 to get CD quality streaming, looks very much like Spotify layout and works in a similar fashion. Quick check of opera for Callas etc shows vast catalog similar to Spotify in size (will have to look more just a quick 1st day look around)

You must use google chrome browser to get FLAC 1411 highest quality streaming, in windows IE highest stream available is AAC 320 which still sounds slightly better than Spotify premium MP3 320 stream

Anyone else signed up yet.......


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I'll check it out. I've been disappointed with Spotify premium lately. A couple of days ago I wanted to try out different Stravinsky discs and all the Rites I samples had that openiong bassoon sounding granular, like there were encoding artifacts. That bassoon has _got_ to sound smooth or it just ruins it!


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

*The $19.99 monthly rate for CD quality music stream may be too much to attract mainstream audience.......*

since many cheap millenials are perfectly happy with $9.99 Spotify premium 320 MP3 stream or free Spotify service (and free Amazon Prime music stream etc)


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

Looks to me like the big names in the music industry flexing their collective muscle and setting up a rival to the other streaming services.
This could be a good thing if the money goes to support the music industry and performers as a whole, not to make the rich elite even more wealthier


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I would just be happy if Sirius Metropolitan Opera Radio would actually play something other than the same old 25 numbers over and over between the wonderful historic broadcasts of operas on Sirius. Then we would have a real first class opera radio channel.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

I currently use Spotify Premium. I am not sure I will notice the difference between 320 and lossless, but it could be an interesting experiment. 

I am in no great rush to switch, though, because the story is that other major streaming services are working on higher quality/lossless streaming as well. I do most all of my streaming via my home wifi but there are still data limits; I really have no idea how to judge how close to them I am.

I am very interested in how Tidal's catalog is so I will be watching this thread.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

At $20 a month, that's about the cost of 2 albums a month, or 24 albums a year. Think of how many albums you could own after a few years for the same expense.

Also, streaming can incur additional costs with your telephone company or internet provider.

I guess how you value it depends on whether you like to hear your cherished recordings regularly or whether you tend to listen to something only one or very few times.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Haydn man said:


> Looks to me like the big names in the music industry flexing their collective muscle and setting up a rival to the other streaming services.





> At $20 a month, that's about the cost of 2 albums a month, or 24 albums a year. Think of how many albums you could own after a few years for the same expense.





> *The $19.99 monthly rate for CD quality music stream may be too much to attract mainstream audience.......*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I do think that $20 a month is probably too much to attract a large customer base, most young people just are just not that interested in the increased CD sound quality streaming......

But this could put pressure on Spotify, Apple iTunes, even Amazon Prime to release a competing CD quality streaming service for *lower cost and use a more sophisticated web music player*


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

I am disappointed with the included sound controls in the very basic featured Tidal music webplayer........since this is premium cost subscription and CD quality streaming there should definitely more advanced/sophisticated audio controls, like Spotify for windows there is no graphic equalizer or any way to alter sound other than volume level.......not happy 

Like spotify all the attention is on making play lists, sharing lists with friends, grouping saved music etc no attention to tailoring music sound to individual taste or to match audio gear as you would expect. 

Also the "find similar music" feature is not as good as spotify


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

brotagonist said:


> I guess how you value it depends on whether you like to hear your cherished recordings regularly or whether you tend to listen to something only one or very few times.


This is key. My preference is mostly for the latter so streaming is great for me.

I also still have a large collection of CDs and vinyl, though these are only slowly growing at this point. I am taking time to explore different performers, performances, and pieces via Spotify before I jump back into growing the CD collection.


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## Dongiovanni (Jul 30, 2012)

Will give it a try. Uncompressed is what I really want and miss in Spotify. How is the searching ? For classical music Spotify is a pain in searching.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Dongiovanni said:


> Will give it a try. Uncompressed is what I really want and miss in Spotify. *How is the searching *? For classical music Spotify is a pain in searching.


Just like Spotify there is small search box and you type one or two words, then side menu appears with matching artist, albums, tracks........there is no advanced search to quickly reduce a large group of results


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

DarkAngel said:


> I am disappointed with the included sound controls in the very basic featured Tidal music webplayer........since this is premium cost subscription and CD quality streaming there should definitely more advanced/sophisticated audio controls, like Spotify for windows there is no graphic equalizer or any way to alter sound other than volume level.......not happy


On the positive side I have checked playing the same track in* Tidal 1411 FLAC vs Spotify 320 MP3 *and you can easily hear the superior sound quality of Tidal if you are using decent audio gear.....

I have always thought Spotify 320 MP3 was less detailed/opaque sounding compared to same 320 MP3 track I ripped from CD and played through my computer audio system

Almost certainly Apple ITunes will offer streaming service soon, and not sure if Spotify feels the need to compete in high quality lossless streaming in response to Tidal launch....


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## anmhe (Feb 10, 2015)

I'm happy to pay more if the artists are getting a bigger cut. Problem is, I have not been able to find the info on what artists are paid on Tidal.

As for the better quality, I'm always happier with better sound. I'll just have to ration the memory on my mobile device.


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## Vlad (Feb 23, 2012)

I didn't sign up, but listened to a few 30-second clips. I assume that's not hifi? It didn't sound better than on Spotify to me. Maybe it's a blessing I don't have the ears of a true audiophile!


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

One cool little feature in Tidal (besides lossless music stream) is when you move cursor over album artwork a magnify symbol appears, click on picture and it *enlarges artwork to near full screen size* in high resolution.......nice for home computer!


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

anmhe said:


> I'm happy to pay more if the artists are getting a bigger cut. Problem is, I have not been able to find the info on what artists are paid on Tidal.


This is important to me. I've heard that with Spotify the artists get a pittance, if that.


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## anmhe (Feb 10, 2015)

Is offline play available on Tidal? I know that should be the case, but I refuse to make that assumption before signing up.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

I love Google Music so much.  And it's free. Tidal is very pricey to me.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Albert7 said:


> I love Google Music so much.  And it's free. Tidal is very pricey to me.


Google Play isn't free for streaming music you don't own.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

GreenMamba said:


> Google Play isn't free for streaming music you don't own.


I have so much of my own music that I don't have to subscribe... also I'm always adding more albums from iTunes


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

DarkAngel said:


> Anyone else signed up yet.......


Yeah, I've signed up for the free trial. My early impressions are positive, though I'm not ready to give up on Spotify or cds. The sound quality is good, the main problem being that there isn't gapless playback (though I expect this will be corrected before too long). The selection of classical music seems to be a lot smaller than Spotify's, though it has a lot of albums that aren't available on the other service. For that reason alone I'd be disinclined to get rid of Spotify.

There are some relatively minor issues that are annoying. You can't make your own order of playlists, for example. Also, you can't "follow" artists or composers, which means that you won't get regular updates about new additions to the catalog that you're particularly interested in.

I'll probably remain signed up to both services for a few months to see if Tidal improves.

I'd be interested in how your views may have changed in the course of your longer experience with it.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Blancrocher said:


> Yeah, I've signed up for the free trial. My early impressions are positive, though I'm not ready to give up on Spotify or cds. The sound quality is good, the main problem being that there isn't gapless playback (though I expect this will be corrected before too long). The selection of classical music seems to be a lot smaller than Spotify's, though it has a lot of albums that aren't available on the other service. For that reason alone I'd be disinclined to get rid of Spotify.
> 
> There are some relatively minor issues that are annoying. You can't make your own order of playlists, for example. Also, you can't "follow" artists or composers, which means that you won't get regular updates about new additions to the catalog that you're particularly interested in.
> 
> ...


It would be very hard to give up lossless streaming now it sounds really good, and you are right that Tidal classical (and other genres) library is not quite as big as spotify even though Tidal has some big name exclusives not on spotify.

I do wish the Tidal software media player was more sophisticated with better audio adjustable features.......they pretty much copied spotify look and feel


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Well Tidal has at least one paid subscriber to lossless streaming service since my 30 day trail is over today and I have not cancelled......but also still have spotify premium


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## Diminuendo (May 5, 2015)

I have to say that the importing playlists from other services doesn't work properly. I imported my playlists from spotify and even though tidal has the same albums things went wrong. Some songs were by the same singer, but from a different album and some songs were by another singer. Some things it didn't find which I found manually. Tidal has the EMI Icon series box sets, but I can't find Tito Gobbi's box set. Strange that they only have some of them.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Diminuendo said:


> I have to say that the importing playlists from other services doesn't work properly. I imported my playlists from spotify and even though tidal has the same albums things went wrong. Some songs were by the same singer, but from a different album and some songs were by another singer. Some things it didn't find which I found manually. Tidal has the EMI Icon series box sets, but I can't find Tito Gobbi's box set. Strange that they only have some of them.


The music library will probably grow with time to closely match spotify, and any software glitches corrected and new features added over time, I would surely like more audio controls for user......

The challenge will surely come when Apple iTunes releases a competing streaming service hopefully with lossless streaming


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Apple unveiled new streaming music service at software developers conference......what a sorry effort, their idea of innovation is worldwide DJ stations :lol:

No mention of lossless streaming, sad state of affairs for music lovers


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

Weston said:


> This is important to me. I've heard that with Spotify the artists get a pittance, if that.


 Suppossedly Jay Z, who owns Tidal, is trying to have the Artists get a fair shake...


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Can anyone offer an update on library size of Tidal vs. Spotify for classical (and jazz)? Examples of differences (titles/labels) appreciated. I actually have both but am thinking of giving up Spotify as I seem to find more than enough to listen to on Tidal.

The one largish label I really miss for both classical and jazz ECM, but the last time I checked that wasn't available on either service.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

jegreenwood said:


> Can anyone offer an update on library size of Tidal vs. Spotify for classical (and jazz)? Examples of differences (titles/labels) appreciated. I actually have both but am thinking of giving up Spotify as I seem to find more than enough to listen to on Tidal.
> 
> The one largish label I really miss for both classical and jazz ECM, but the last time I checked that wasn't available on either service.


I still have both services and Spotify has biggest music library of classical/opera but Tidal is getting better all the time, if you have good sound system the superior lossless streaming sound (CD quality) of Tidal is easy to hear......remember you must use Google Chrome web browser to get lossless streaming quality

The search functions of both services are not optimized for classical, takes a while to learn how to best find albums......I am amazed sometimes at the hard to find albums they do have available


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

DarkAngel said:


> I still have both services and Spotify has biggest music library of classical/opera but Tidal is getting better all the time, if you have good sound system the superior lossless streaming sound (CD quality) of Tidal is easy to hear......remember you must use Google Chrome web browser to get lossless streaming quality
> 
> The search functions of both services are not optimized for classical, takes a while to learn how to best find albums......I am amazed sometimes at the hard to find albums they do have available


Actually I stream to my Squeezeboxes via ickStream.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Tidal raises the bar again with new "masters" albums which stream 24/96 compared to 16/44 lossless HiFi streaming, must use desktop Tidal app to play "masters", Tidal is just starting to add masters 24/96 to available catalog but I just listened to Callas "pure" in 24/96.............nice!


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Some good news yesterday, Sprint telephone purchased 30% of Tidal so we don't have to worry about Apple messing things up.

Many more Callas albums available as 24/96 masters series, listening to Verdi Heroines now.......fabulous


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

When you say 'Masters' are you referring to MQA?


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Triplets said:


> When you say 'Masters' are you referring to MQA?


Yes Tidal calls the 24/96 streamed albums "masters" , MQA technology makes this possible at a reasonable bandwidth for no extra charge over 16/44 service


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