Is tidal the best music streaming service?

[s2weden2000]

------> L 0 L

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

So i just recently started using music streaming services within the last couple months. I started off using apple music just because you get 3 months free to try it out, my co-worker was using spotify and after trying it out it seemed to offer a better user experience with the social aspect etc. ( I still feel it has the best user experience). I also just recently purchased an onkyo dp-x1 DAP as well as some pioneer se-mhr5 headphones so i could use the balanced output of the onkyo DAP(which allows me to use both sets of DAC/AMPs in the onkyo at the same time, it has two built in).

After purchasing those items, i heard about Tidal and its HiFi streaming of CD quality music so i decided to try it out. In my experience Tidal just sounds better using this setup, even with out an EQ built in. Additionally I have not run into any songs that do not play in HiFi, you can force Tidal to always stream in HiFi by turning off adaptive streaming. It is also possible to verify the streaming quality of Tidal by using "USB audio player PRO", it allows you to stream Tidal through its app and it shows you the bit rate of the track. This app also allows you to use an EQ on tidals music (although to me streaming through tidal still sounds better for some reason). Ive tried to listen to the same tracks using poweramp, onkyos built in music app, apple music, and spotify, and for some reason i always go back to Tidal.

Originally my plan was to stick with spotify if i couldnt tell a difference in sound quality between the two. But since i do notice a difference (its not a huge difference but i notice it) i think im going to stick with Tidal. Also i do like the fact that they give more royalties to the artists and it has music videos.

Its probably not worth the extra $10 to the average consumer but I personally prefer it.

You, sir, are the exact reason why streaming services like Tidal exist. I'm saying that in an absolutely positive way, too, since you have a legitimate setup that allows you to hear the difference very clearly (and makes me jealous!)

If you have the lossless subscription all of the content is Hifi and you can set your account to only play music in HiFi.....I have Spotify Tidal and GPM...I use Tidal the most because of the sound quality

Yeah, but without a setup like the post above it's going to be difficult to hear the difference. If you're using anything less than top-end equipment hearing the difference is, honestly, probably a placebo. I do recall that when I tried Tidal I could hear a difference on my desktop setup, but not on my mobile device.

 

[Sunhop]

I think this thread proves we need a new article on this topic. Come on Jerry

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[Hans Pedersen]

Marked as "Best Answer".

Well done good sir.

Hey! I was technically subscribing to Rhapsody up until last week. I noticed they had bought the rights to the Napster name, so... I figured I'd try it out for fun and very indirectly pay for the service I may or may not have used in the heyday of the actual Napster website.
The catalogue on Rhapsody/Napster is unfortunately the same as what most streaming services offer, not particularly good. From my experience, it actually seems like the majority of the services shares the same licenses with the identical missing stuff. The exceptions, of the ones I've tried, are Spotify, Tidal and probably Google Play Music (it was so long ago I subscribed to GPM that I can't remember what they did offer. I have not bothered with testing Apple Music myself.).

 

[Poleaux]

Google Play Music(GPM) is the best streaming app period. 14.99 for up to 5 family members and no extra charge for streaming in hi-def. It's also easir to load mixtapes into GPM.

 

[zhris]

As long as we're considering individual usage cases as points of fact, I happen to listen to a lot of Death Metal (Carcass, Pungent Stench, Mercyful Fate) and 80s New Wave music (Psychedelic Furs, Men without Hats). It looks like there's no way to search their catalog without signing up (and I'm not about to sign up), but it looks like Tidal may not be the best choice for me.

 

[croaker68]

Tidal HI FI does sound very good on my LG v10. They offer a free 30 day trial (per email address). just cancel a few days before the time is up.

I don't think he is on Spotify or GPM either.

 

[tehWever]

Metallica is missing for instance, so tidal selection is indeed limited.
Tidal could be called the best in terms of quality of files but you really need to either have lots of storage for offline cache or disable adaptive quality streaming and hope your data speeds keep up. UX is pretty confusing on both pc and
For great lossless quality I just use the actual local FLACs 900-2500kbps from iPodClassic with ROckbox firmware through AudioTechnica ATH M50x headphones - gets the job done flawless for portable needs.
For streaming music I just use spotify, yes the quality is nowhere as good but the ui and ux is smooth and intuitive enough to keep me on board.
GPL has its advantages, main would be its radio algorithm, which is the most acurrate and advanced I've used, BUT it has 2 painful disadvantages that break the deal for me:
1) UI - its too large, on devices as large as Nexus 6 it makes no sense to have just 4 ginormous playlist buttons and scroll scroll scroll, when you could just use list style. Funny thing is, download manager in GPL uses it and its perfectly fine.
2) no open api support - gpl is the ONLY service to not work with sounddiiz, so even if I wanted to commit I cant transfer none of my playlists over.

So nope, Tidal is not best- it has its own set of pros and cons as any other service out there, you just need to decide which features you want the most. Good luck.

 

[Mister K]

@tehWever, You are right, Tidal lacks Metallica. But then Spotify has no Prince, for example. You can pick holes in all the services, so, as you say, trial them all and pick what works for you. The fact that we have a choice of pretty decent services is great.

I'm with you on Soundiiz - what a fantastic service that is. Sure the conversion rate is only about 95% due to naming differences, but adding the odd track is so much easier than recreating whole playlists again - especially as a few of mine contain hundreds of tracks.

As an aside, can anyone point me to any analysis of whether Tidal pays artists a fairer rate, or is it just so much BS?

Also any love for Deezer? I tried it once and was pretty impressed. If Deezer rolls out it's lossless service to more than just Sonos users I'd give it a go.

 

[tehWever]

Thats unlikely, given how strong ideologies Prince had about defending artists and their music, and the fact that he gave his work exclusively to Tidal. Wired made an article about him as his war on music labels. Might wanna go find it.

 

[HighSpeedRail]

The Discover Weekly feature on Spotify is the killer feature that has stopped me from jumping to other services. I've found some really obscure stuff thorough there that I'm listening to on repeat.

Other services may have more big names but that's still not enough for me. I don't listen to them much anyway although some Taylor Swift on Spotify will be nice.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

The Discover Weekly feature on Spotify is the killer feature that has stopped me from jumping to other services. I've found some really obscure stuff thorough there that I'm listening to on repeat.

Other services may have more big names but that's still not enough for me. I don't listen to them much anyway although some Taylor Swift on Spotify will be nice.

This thread has caused me to have some real life conversations about this topic (streaming music) and music discovery keeps coming up.

Spotify boasted above the Discover Weekly being very popular and I have to agree. For discovery it's killer and it not matched anywhere else (though Google could do this if they decided to).

 

[Mister K]

Discover Weekly is indeed another win for Spotify.

I've tried to find out what the musicians get paid for each track we stream. Spotify really is terrible compared to Google Play Music and Tidal.
Spotify pays 0.11 cents per play.
Tidal pays 0.70 cents.
Google pays 0.72 cents.

The infographic is here
And the data is here

I'm guessing this is due to artists getting next to nothing from Spotify's ad-supported non-paying users. Yet even at this low rate of remuneration, Spotify is losing lots of money - $173 last year. Without record label support this would surely be unsustainable.
Tidal is also losing a fortune but I suspect the aim of Jay-Z and the other owners was not make money day to day but to make a big noise and get bought out by a big player for a profit. Samsung? Sony?
Meanwhile Google is quietly improving and is wealthy enough to stand the losses (what's a couple of hundred million to Google?) whilst hoping to keep artists happy by paying a more reasonable amount than Spotify.
I suspect the streaming landscape will be very different in 2 years time - and if they want Google will be toe to toe with Apple. The others may well be history by then. Time will tell.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Discover Weekly is indeed another win for Spotify.

I've tried to find out what the musicians get paid for each track we stream. Spotify really is terrible compared to Google Play Music and Tidal.
Spotify pays 0.11 cents per play.
Tidal pays 0.70 cents.
Google pays 0.72 cents.

The infographic is here
And the data is here

I'm guessing this is due to artists getting next to nothing from Spotify's ad-supported non-paying users. Yet even at this low rate of remuneration, Spotify is losing lots of money - $173 last year. Without record label support this would surely be unsustainable.
Tidal is also losing a fortune but I suspect the aim of Jay-Z and the other owners was not make money day to day but to make a big noise and get bought out by a big player for a profit. Samsung? Sony?
Meanwhile Google is quietly improving and is wealthy enough to stand the losses (what's a couple of hundred million to Google?) whilst hoping to keep artists happy by paying a more reasonable amount than Spotify.
I suspect the streaming landscape will be very different in 2 years time - and if they want Google will be toe to toe with Apple. The others may well be history by then. Time will tell.

Am I reading it wrong?

It appears to say that Tidal and Spotify both pay $0.007. Less than a penny per play.

Which is different than what is said here:

http://rollingout.com/2015/05/23/leaked-documents-reveal-much-spotify-tidal-really-pay-artists/

Per the Sony/Spotify contract, artists are to be paid $0.00225 per stream where as a recent Tidal royalty statement that made it’s way to the internet reflected that it pays twice as much to artist. Soon after a Tidal representative stated that figures in the leaked Tidal statement were off and that Tidal pays $0.024 – $0.028, which amounts to about ten times Spotify’s royalty rate.

Also this: http://www.recode.net/2016/5/23/11749122/spotify-losses-revenue-2015

 

[Aquila]

Google and Tidal are pretty comparable and Spotify doesn't pay hardly anything (if the data is right) - average would be 2.6 cents on Google, 2.5 on Tidal, 0.4 on Spotify, if there were an equal amount of both types of artists. So that makes the statement reconcile with the data and the only way Spotify comes close on a comparison is if they compare their DIY rate to Tidal's Label rate

 

[Mister K]

GPM and Tidal at less than a penny a play
Spotify at just over a tenth of a penny a play.

It seems all very confusing. I've since come across some artist's payment statements on the web.
Tidal paid this artist a steady $0.0065 per play
Spotify varied from $0 (yes, zero) to $0.0081! The artist says she has no idea how Spotify work out what she should be paid. The whole thing must be very frustrating if you make music for a living.
Scroll to the bottom of the article for the statements

As to whether Spotify is doing well or not - opinions vary. The Financial Times says “while the growth of Spotify’s top line is positive, the fundamentals remain that it’s not a profitable business and it’s difficult to see how it will get to be a profitable business”

Time will tell.

 

[Piggy winks]

I thought this article was about what people's thoughts were, but it seems to have been a "Tidal is the best, and you are an ***** if you don't agree with me" rant.

Everyone's choices are varying, and our needs vary too.

I personally will never use Tidal because of who owns it (the two faces of Tidal) and the fact there is no free option (other than a trial). Spotify works for me, GPM works for me, and now I signed up for YTR, which lately, pre-Red, I was streaming more youtube videos during my drive than anything, but having my screen on was a pain. So for ME, the choices I make are the best for me. Tidal may be the best for YOU, so congrats on that.

 

[anon(4054009)]

I thought this article was about what people's thoughts were, but it seems to have been a "Tidal is the best, and you are an ***** if you don't agree with me" rant.

Everyone's choices are varying, and our needs vary too.

I personally will never use Tidal because of who owns it (the two faces of Tidal) and the fact there is no free option (other than a trial). Spotify works for me, GPM works for me, and now I signed up for YTR, which lately, pre-Red, I was streaming more youtube videos during my drive than anything, but having my screen on was a pain. So for ME, the choices I make are the best for me. Tidal may be the best for YOU, so congrats on that.

Not sure we are reading the same thread, you mad bro?

 

[tehWever]

Piggy Winks, I think you missinterpret most ot the stuff everyone is saying. Use what you want, there is no best service.

Back to the topic at hand...
the payment stats 4 spotify are pretty cruel, I buy a lot of music on bandcamp and rip bought cds for FLAC because I care about artists get paid for the work they put into stuff I use to destroy my ears. I gotta rethink leaving spotify someday

 

[Piggy winks]

Piggy Winks, I think you missinterpret most ot the stuff everyone is saying. Use what you want, there is no best service.

Back to the topic at hand...
the payment stats 4 spotify are pretty cruel, I buy a lot of music on bandcamp and rip bought cds for FLAC because I care about artists get paid for the work they put into stuff I use to destroy my ears. I gotta rethink leaving spotify someday

I know, use what you want, but there is a certain person that started it and no matter what it seemed, or other's suggested, the one person was on a Tidal-wave of slamming everyone.

I do agree that there is no "best." And Sectime.. I'm not mad... coming to the weekend, the kids are at grandma's....nope, not mad at all!!!