If you're looking for a streaming music service or considering switching from your current service, Tidal is a top choice along with Spotify and Apple Music. It has a reputation for providing the highest quality streaming music that outperforms other services.
Tidal provides access to over 110 million tracks. It offers the industry's best lossless and high-resolution music tracks, making it a great choice for audiophiles. In addition to music, Tidal also has podcasts, Dolby Atmos tracks, and personalized playlists based on your listening habits.
If you want to learn more about Tidal, here's everything you need to know.
What is Tidal?
Derek Malcolm / Digital Trends
Derek Malcolm / Digital TrendsTidal is a music streaming subscription service with a catalog of tens of millions of songs, including exclusive songs. We also have a variety of podcasts, music videos, live concert recordings, and professionally curated playlists. Like most streaming services, it can be accessed on a variety of devices, including computers, smartphones, tablets, smart speakers, and platforms like Apple TV and Android TV. However, Tidal has a few different focuses to help it stand out.
Tidal was originally owned by a group of musicians including Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, Jack White, Kanye, Madonna, Rihanna, Daft Punk, Coldplay's Chris Martin, and more. In 2021, Block (then known as Square) acquired Tidal for about $300 million, ending Artist Base's ownership, but its influence remains.
With Tidal, you have access to a limited catalog of Hi-Res music that includes at least CD-quality audio and up to 24-bit/192kHz Hifi and Max tracks in Hi-Res FLAC files (which are being phased out). A library of MQA files with preference for FLAC). It also supports Dolby Atmos and Sony's 360 Reality audio for spatial audio characteristics. While other services like Apple Music and Qobuz include lossless audio and similar benefits, Tidal offers the best audio quality for casual listening.
How much does Tidal cost and what does it include?
In April 2024, Tidal simplified its service and changed its subscription prices to compete with rivals like Apple Music and Amazon Music. The HiFi and HiFi Plus plans have been discontinued and replaced with new plans that offer lossless audio, Hi-Res FLAC, and Dolby Atmos music. The new plan is:
Individual: $11/month Family: $17/month (up to 6 family members) Student: $5/month Tidal for DJs: $9/month (this is an add-on to the personal plan and is not its own plan)
Each subscription gives you access to over 110 million tracks in lossless, Hi-Res FLAC, and Dolby Atmos. This ad-free service offers offline listening, personalized mixes, editorial playlists, and live sessions.
If you're new to Tidal, enjoy a 30-day free trial. Tidal's free trial gives you free access to the entire ad-free, lossless catalog and streaming features.
FLAC and MQA tracks
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There are two main Hi-Res track formats at your disposal: HiRes FLAC and MQA. For a long time, MQA was Tidal's only 24-bit/96kHz format, but the decision was made to phase it out in favor of the open source FLAC format.
Longtime Tidal listeners may long for the days of MQA-only content, as the quality of MQA tracks is determined by the record label, not the streaming service. However, due to the convenience of accessing HiRes FLAC content, the bit rate for applicable songs and artists is up to 24 bit/192 kHz. Needless to say, FLAC format is more widely supported throughout the AV industry. When Tidal's Masters catalog (another name for the MQA library) was the preferred high-res format, listeners had to have certain AV hardware to take full advantage of that format.
So how do you know if the track you're listening to is FLAC or MQA? If you use Tidal's mobile and desktop apps, you'll see a FLAC option above the command dashboard for the high-res track you're listening to. or MQA label.
As it stands, Tidal's preferred streaming tiers are (from highest to lowest): HiRes FLAC, MQA, FLAC, AAC. Also keep in mind that true high-resolution audio quality is highly dependent on the last part of the audio delivery chain: the digital-to-analog converter (DAC), amplifier, and speakers/headphones. If any of these elements aren't high quality or compatible with Hi-Res audio, you won't get the full Hi-Res experience.
What is Dolby Atmos Music?
Dolby Atmos Music is the same object-based audio system used in movie theaters and home theaters to create incredibly immersive sound experiences, but it has been adapted for studio recording and live music. Masu.
Dolby Atmos isn't available on every song, but you can access it anywhere it's available. When you log in,[探索]You should be able to find the recommended Dolby Atmos content in the tab. To listen to Dolby Atmos music tracks in the highest quality, use an Apple TV 4K, Amazon Fire TV device, Nvidia Shield and Shield Pro, or Chromecast with Google TV, and an Atmos-compatible AV receiver, TV, soundbar, or wireless speakers. .
What speakers, devices, and software will work with Tidal?
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tideWith an active Tidal subscription, you have many choices when it comes to watching and listening to Tidal content.
Tidal offers proprietary software that can be used with:
iOS devices and Apple Watch Android devices Roku devices Vizio devices Mac and PC Apple TV Android/Google TV Amazon Fire TV Samsung Smart TVs (2017 and later) Samsung Gear Watches
Tidal music services are broadly supported on third-party sound systems such as Sonos, Denon HEOS, BlueSound, and Yamaha MusicCast. Within these systems' dedicated apps, you can add Tidal as a streaming music source using your Tidal account login email and password.
You can also integrate Tidal content into popular media player/server software such as Plex and Roon. Additionally, there is also his Tidal addon for Kodi and many other software.
You may have also heard of Tidal Connect, a popular way to cast Tidal audio to compatible wireless speakers. Using the Tidal app as a controller, you can select specific speakers for playback and send the highest quality stream possible, including lossless FLAC, MQA, and even Dolby Atmos. Tidal Connect is similar to Chromecast and AirPlay, but these casting protocols do not support Connect's high-quality audio streams. The following devices currently support Tidal Connect:
Next, it's compatible with voice assistants, allowing you to play music on Tidal via voice commands, but this is a bit more limited. Tidal has added support for Alexa and Google Assistant over the past few years, but support for Siri is limited. Tidal works with Siri on your iPhone, but the only way to play Tidal on Apple's HomePod Mini is via AirPlay from your iOS device. The same goes for Google's Home series of smart speakers. You can cast Tidal from your mobile app, but Tidal isn't natively supported, so you can't say, “Hey Google, play Nipsey Hussle on Tidal.” ”
Certain Sonos smart speakers are compatible with voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant. However, not all Sonos speakers support both assistants. For example, Sonos Era 300 only supports Alexa. Additionally, some speakers, such as the Sonos Ray soundbar, are not classified as smart speakers. Note that you can't add Tidal directly to Google Assistant. Instead, you need to add it to the Sonos app. Then you can control it with Google Assistant.
Additional information about the tides
In addition to its extensive music catalog, Tidal also offers some notable additions.
playlist
You can create, edit, and delete playlists from Tidal tracks. Tune My Music or Soundiiz allows you to import playlists from other music services such as Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, Soundcloud, YouTube, and Google Play Music. Tidal also publishes and manages its own collection of playlists organized by mood and genre. Moods are often activity-oriented, such as driving, focusing, relaxing, and partying, while genres are more traditional categories, such as dance, metal, jazz, and rap.
If you want to create a playlist, Tidal's My Mix feature uses an algorithm to create a playlist based on your favorite music. You'll need to listen to the music for a while to get an accurate reading of My Mixes, but otherwise it's very effective at building instant playlists and creating new suggestions. Tidal used to offer playlists curated by experts like Jay-Z, but while this effort has dwindled in recent years, you can still find older curated lists from a variety of artists.
Tidal Magazine
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tideJust as impressive as the human-curated playlists is Tidal's collection of articles and interviews in its magazine section. Content ranges from album reviews like Patterson Hood's take on Bruce Springsteen's Western Stars to Alan Wright's deep dive into the forces that shaped Prince's obsession with perfection. These aren't just hot opinions about the latest trends. These are considered posts by the people who know music best, such as musicians, producers, and professional journalists.
podcast
While Tidal's collection of podcasts doesn't match that of Spotify or other platforms, it has an eclectic library that includes podcasts that explore a variety of topics, especially new music and books, and interview artists and authors. .
movie
Speaking of video, this is one area where Tidal really shines. With over 450,000 music videos, live concert recordings, and specials like “Saints with Prince,” “Rough Draft,” and “Fresh Cuts,” to experience them on the big screen, check out Tidal It's worth downloading the app to your video device like Apple TV or Android TV. . However, videos are not available in the free version of this service. You must pay a subscription fee to access the videos. You'll also have access to live streaming concerts thanks to Tidal Rising, which spotlights up-and-coming artists through a partnership with Horizon Worlds, a meta-virtual venue project.
Tidal Beta Program
Want early access to new Tidal features before they're generally available? Consider signing up for the Tidal Beta Program. The program is available on the iOS and Android versions of the Tidal mobile app.
The Beta program was previously called Early Access and required you to download the TestFlight app to your smartphone. Fortunately, participants in the new beta program only need to download the latest version of the Tidal app. next,[設定]Proceed to[ベータに参加]Tap to toggle Beta on.
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