Tidal

I've done some cd rips, Spotify premium, Tidal and Tidal Hifi recordings and will do comparisons later today (if anyone is still interested in this matter)

I've recorded intros to two George Michael songs from desktop Spotify Premium, Tidal, Tidal Hifi with Audacity (WASAPI) and ripped from cd to mp3 and FLAC using fre:ac. So if anyone's interested should be possible to do som ABXing from this https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6Efh5anRoStZFhEWUxqbEk2YkE/view?usp=sharing

what was your take?

I'm finall on Tidal...listening to the new Neil Young...hilarious that he took this stand on hi-fi on a song that (while fucking killer) is definitely like a high quality live boot in terms of recording....so good though

awesome, niels. Thanks! I will do some spectral analysis on these when I have some time. I hope the spectrum does not form the shape of a middle finger or something.

actually kinda like how it looks and the interface

my spotify PC app crashes and freezes all the fuckin' time

yeah, I think anyone's preference between the two UIs will be heavily influenced by whether they use desktop, iOS, android, etc software. The spotify android app has been bug free for the way I use it for awhile now. That's why it was mildly annoying to get dragged over to Tidal again by artists I like in order to immediately experience bugs on the android app. People on the spotify thread certainly have spotify bugs, though. I think I'll probably just use the $10 versions of both.

been watching the second season of Bosch, and I'm just waiting for Bosch to fire up some Art Pepper on his Tidal Hi-Fi.

and oh shit I didn't realize all of this Neil is on Tidal

So is Tidal really a better deal for artists? And is it better for smaller/non-major-label artists as well? Because if it's that plus marginally better sound and access to a few things like Neil that i don't have on Spotify, and the user experience doesn't suck, I might be open to consider it

I don't know the answers, but I've decided that I'd pay $20/month for a version of spotify that has even more music. So I might as well have both. Hi-Fi Tidal may still be a bit scammy, but perhaps offering a scammy Hi-Fi version is the only way to sign curmudgeons to your music streaming service. I wish I could have all of my listening feeding into the spotify learning data crunch, though.

and oh shit I didn't realize all of this Neil is on Tidal

― Sufjan Grafton, Friday, May 13, 2016 11:55 AM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

huh jeez that might be enough for me...though i hate to abandon my spotify lists :/\

actually just looked though and found that there are some serious holes, like just pulling stuff out of my ass there was no Tortoise (except 1 in the fishtank w/the Ex), no Fugazi, so it looks like it's def not comparable to google music, apple, or spotify for catalog

xp So I wouldn't get the Hi-Fi version, if it wasn't clear. And I wouldn't trust any test that Tidal publishes for comparing lossy/lossless files.

xp yeah, I don't think it's possible to be happy with one service so long as Tidal keeps getting these exclusives and Spotify keeps not caring

So is Tidal really a better deal for artists? And is it better for smaller/non-major-label artists as well?

also v cool that I can watch the e.g. Beyonce's LEMONADE and Neil Young's A Letter Home videos on Tidal, but will smaller artists ever have the budget to take advantage of that sort of thing?

For me it breaks down like this:

Spotify is cheaper, and run by faceless people who think that Surströmming (or marrying Julianna Hatfield, depending on who you ask) is a good idea
Tidal Hi-Fi sounds ridiculously better. Jesus, do a 30 day trial and use your own ears. You don't A/B anything else in your life, let's be honest.
Spotify has more small artists at the moment
Tidal deals with offline listening on Android in a much less insanely annoying way
Spotify provides playlists to ILM, both via employees and via people who think that being "Spotify playlist provider for ILM" is cooler than iced tofu
Tidal doesn't give a fuck about ILM

Solution. Free Spotify to check out minor acts. Paid Hi-Fi Subscription to Tidal.

The new Neil Young thing is actually pretty great, and I say that as a not-particularly-huge fan of Neil Young.

solution: i stop reading yr posts

Fascinating article on Spotify here: http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/13/news/companies/spotify-sweden-stockholm-new-york/

Brief version in three points. They think that the New York housing market is wonderful. Spotify needs women. Spotify having trouble paying people via stock options.

Meanwhile, I seem to recall that Tidal is run by Satan or something like that...

Someone should tell all of the people that have Spotify jobs in New York that they might finally have Spotify jobs in New York!

Tidal Hi-Fi sounds ridiculously better. Jesus, do a 30 day trial and use your own ears. You don't A/B anything else in your life, let's be honest.

That is interesting. I wonder why Spotify would make such a point about that while lobbying in their home country. I mean, if most of their employees are in NY, why would it matter where Spotify is located?

Tidal deals with offline listening on Android in a much less insanely annoying way

One thing I didn't realize (and actually should have) is that Tidal offers a student plan that's about 50% off. That doesn't seem to have come up here.

I've recorded intros to two George Michael songs from desktop Spotify Premium, Tidal, Tidal Hifi with Audacity (WASAPI) and ripped from cd to mp3 and FLAC using fre:ac. So if anyone's interested should be possible to do som ABXing from this https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6Efh5anRoStZFhEWUxqbEk2YkE/view?usp=sharing

― niels, Friday, May 13, 2016 4:34 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was convinced that the bass in Fast Love sounded different, but then I listened again and was convinced that there is no difference. Either way, I am absolutely convinced that I gotta get up to get down.

I've been switching back between Tidal & Spotify on extreme quality and I feel like I hear a difference and that Tidal feels like there's more space between instruments and a less harsh grainy quality.... But it's so hard to tell with this stuff what's just suggestibility... Also Tidal doesn't work with Chromecast :/

So far I'm doing that and I couldn't hear a difference on: Led Zeppelin III (Deluxe Edition), MJQ 40 boxed set, or Beethoven Symphony No 7 (Kleiber conducting). That said, I'm using a middling pair of sony headphones and maybe I'd hear more through better ones or good speakers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7nsBoqJ6s8

LOL @ all of dlp's anti-Sweden bullshit. I'm not charged a foreign transaction fee when from Spotify!:

https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/201874952-What-is-international-transaction-fee-
http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=863025

*when charged by Spotify

So far I'm doing that and I couldn't hear a difference on: Led Zeppelin III (Deluxe Edition), MJQ 40 boxed set, or Beethoven Symphony No 7 (Kleiber conducting). That said, I'm using a middling pair of sony headphones and maybe I'd hear more through better ones or good speakers.

― JWoww Gilberto (man alive), Saturday, 14 May 2016 04:08 (12 hours ago) Permalink

I will say, however, that Prince, who is not on Spotify at all, sounds really fucking good on Tidal, especially Sign of the Times and Purple Rain

hard to use Prince as a test case in this experiment b/c you cannot control for magic

lmao where did this dlp character come from

cwu levels of random pissiness on topics of zero consequence, thumbs up

spotify have a student plan that's exactly 50% off btw

hehe Sufjan my main takeaway was also that I should get up to get down

gotta say that I don't find the difference too noticeable, but then again I'm not certain A/B-testing is the best idea of all time - I do find the cd rip to have a more relaxed sound

ok I think I actually did hear a diff on the new Chris Forsyth record? It just seemed to have a little more energy and presence on Tidal. But it was subtle and I'm not 100% sure. Blindfolded I don't know if I'd pick one as better.

Maybe you were listening to bruce forsyth on spotify?

yeah honestly i'm kind of digging Tidal, also doesn't crash on me nearly as much as Spotify on my work computer

Tidal has a shit jazz selection it seems.

even worse than Spotify?

Spotify has a bad jazz selection? How so

One of the reasons I went premium years ago on Spotify was the blue note selection

Not "bad" but it's the genre where the fewest new releases I want to check out seem to turn up.

is there something I'm missing, or is music discovery basically non-existent on Tidal? Spotify seems to have a massive advantage as it relates to discovery as well as catalog breadth.

I'm currently paying for both Spotify and Tidal Hi-Fi. outside of the exclusives and a higher fidelity that I personally can't hear, I'm not finding anything that would make me choose Tidal long-term.

I've been rotating through the streaming services for several months now (In April I did Apple Music, next month I'll do Deezer again) and I have consistently found Spotify to be the least lacking since Rdio died.

this was good. had no idea Deezer was such A Big Deal.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/23/music-streaming-services-playlister-sam-lee-deezer?CMP=share_btn_fb

i know there's an all-encompassing thread for all things stream-y but so help me i can't remember what it's called

Thread For Chatter About The Streaming Music Economy

ah thanks.

I'm about a month in and been doing a lot of A/Bing and I prefer Tidal's HIFI sound quality to Spotify's Extreme quality

the music discovery and selection isn't as broad but it's pretty good. Honestly if they added Chromecast Audio support (which I tweeted at their official account and they said something like we're looking into new streaming options but def noncommittal) I think I would go for it, but the HIFI is something I would get the most use out of at home on my good stereo through Chromecast so it kinda defeats the purpose

I'm curious about how you were A/Bing

just on my computer thru headphones and an outboard DAC/headphone preamp, play song for like 20 seconds on spotify, pause, switch to tidal go to 20 and pause, then basically just listening to the same 10-15 seconds on each one back to back and pausing

on some level i realize how sad this all sounds

also in general, Tidal volume level seems lower which I generally take as a good sign wrt to compression

That last statement may be true, but on its surface it seems to conflate audio and file compression. If you like something more about another service, I'd do a volume-matched blind A/B before trading off for perceived sound quality improvement. Unfortunately, you can also run into the issue of different masters showing up on two different services.