Official TIDAL HIFI Streaming Issues Thread

[The Computer Audiophile]

At the request of some CA Community members I have created a thread for us to discuss any streaming problems with TIDAL HIFI.

[The Computer Audiophile]

I tried but - ugh. The lack of gapless playback (or my inability to engage it) was just too jarring. Back to HiRes or DSD downloads for me. I *really* wanted this to work.

 

-Paul

Gapless depends on the player. Using the Auralic Aries and my iPhone I have gapless all day long.

[The Computer Audiophile]

(!) Is that because of the Auralic Aries or because of the iPhone? In the words, can you get just an iPhone to play Tidal gapless, or do you need the Aires?

On both devices as standalone players I get gapless. I mention this because people are writing TIDAL off as not gapless, but in reality it depends on the player. If specific players aren't gapless now, let's start a list and get them upgraded.

[The Computer Audiophile]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]15408[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]15409[/ATTACH]

 

Hi dallasjustice - What issues did you have with TIDAL? I've been using it for quite awhile and can't live without it.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Same skips and trips described throughout this thread. I am happy you like it. I am happy with Spotify. I don't get the same "features" with Spotify. Spotify's not perfect but less imperfect and half the price. The tide has gone out on Tidal and I can see who's swimming naked. 

What platforms did you use (iOS, Android, Windows, OS X, Auralic, etc...)?

 

I'm honestly having a hard time purposely causing problems with TIDAL right now.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Streaming Tidal thru a Auralic Aries directly to a Modwright 105 works beautifully. No hiccups, no computer, no problem!!

Same here.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Sigh....

 

Here is what Auralic sent me this week:

 

The TIDAL is not officially available on ARIES firmware 1.9 and Lightning DS 1.6

 

Also, TIDAL said that only Bluesound supports TIDAL last week. They didn't even mention Auralic in the near future list when I asked.

 

So I'm not sure how you are getting the service. Are you beta testers...

 

 

 

I have firmware 1.9 with DS 1.6 and it supports WiMP, Qobuz, and Tidal.

[The Computer Audiophile]

That, and the fact that it also works fine with an iPad connected to a DAC, would seem to reinforce the notion that there is something wrong with Tidal's streaming options for computers (Chrome we streaming and standalone app for PCs).

Or there is something on the PCs that is interfering with TIDAL.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Anyone else having problems streaming Tidal on an Auralic Aries? I cannot play anything.

This is one of theplatkforms that works great every time (the than large playlists of 40 plus songs).

[The Computer Audiophile]

Anyone else having trouble logging in through the desktop application?

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Does anyone know if these problems are temporary?

 

Thanks.

 

Alan

Id be surprised if it was permanent :~)

[The Computer Audiophile]

Heh... Probably the addition of the Taylor Swift catalog

The Taylor Swift catalog has been on Tidal since it launched :~)

[The Computer Audiophile]

Tidal did some massive upgrades that should solve 99% of the performance issues.

[The Computer Audiophile]

I see my iPhone had a Tidal update . Now there are two services you can buy through Apple . Tidal Hifi at 25.99 ( very pricy ) and Tidal Premium at 12.99 .

 

Does anyone know what the difference is? Premium only lower bitrate streaming ?

 

I'm currently paying 19.99 monthly . If my rate goes to 25.99 , I'm canceling .

I have a call into TIDAL for more information as well as the big announcement today.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

OK, just heard back from TIDAL.

 

The price is higher for in-app purchases of the service. If you purchase from TIDAL outside the app it's still the same $20. I thought this wasn't allowed by Apple, but apparently TIDAL is pulling it off.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Chris: Do you know if the desktop app is def going away? I prefer that to the web interface.

It's gone. For Good.

[The Computer Audiophile]

My desktop app is working fine. Obviously, for me anyway, its functionality is still there. So is it safe to assume that for those of us who downloaded the app, that we will continue to use it?

 

Chris, could you please explain what you mean "It's gone."

I believe it will continue to work if you have it downloaded already, but it won't be available for download anymore.

[The Computer Audiophile]

We're but a few hours away from the big TIDAL announcement. Let's hope I'm wrong here, but the pre publicity suggests that all this is about is the artists earning more from streaming. One can understand how tough it must be not being able to put a down payment down on a sixth luxury yacht and how crucial that is compared with simple things like an offline desktop mode and reliable streaming.

 

Hope I will be eating my words come the end of this afternoon.

I think if you extrapolate from the "artists earning more money" from streaming you can take this to be a great thing for both music lovers and music makers.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi bubbleguuum,

 

 

 

I see this as very welcome news, given that my Tidal streaming experience has been plagued with periods of annoying dropouts across my several months as a subscriber in the Dallas, Texas area, with Verizon FiOs 50/50 Mbps service.

 

Back in February, running netstat -b while streaming a track from Tidal HiFi, then running a tracert and using the lookup tool at Trace An IP - Our IP Address Locator & Tracer Can Track Any Location, I could see both TIDAL.EXE (music stream) and TIDALMEDIA.EXE (supporting content) were serving from IP addresses in Copenhagen, Denmark, then coming to the Dallas area by way of Bern, Switzerland and Wichita, Kansas.

 

Yesterday, using the same methods, I discovered that I now receive TIDAL.EXE streams from a server near Roochama, Israel and from there to the Dallas area by way of Paris, France to Ashburn, Virginia to Wichita, Kansas. TIDALMEDIA.EXE is now being served from Boston, Massachussets. I'm no longer receiving anything from Copenhagen.

 

I'm not sure when exactly this change occurred (between mid-February and yesterday), but I haven't experienced any dropouts in over a week, now. Yay!

 

Reading the portion of your post that I've bolded above, I've looked for other online references, but cannot find any additional information regarding a relationship between Tidal HiFi and Amazon. Can you provide a link to any other discussions of this (very welcome) news?

 

Thank you!

 

Mike

Hi Mike - I can shed some light on this. The major change for Tidal was switching CDNs to Akamai. Tidal also uses Amazon. It's a combination of storage and caching. The new change should enable streaming from much closer locations and caching of most recently used music at even closer locations.

[The Computer Audiophile]

"I think if you extrapolate from the "artists earning more money" from streaming you can take this to be a great thing for both music lovers and music makers."

 

Well those issues are between the streaming service providers and the artists. In general, I could care less about them, the same as they could care less about how I conduct business. As a consumer I'm interested in a service delivering what it originally promised, rather than the disappointing and unreliable execution to date.

 

I accept that my comment is premature, but I just get a horrible feeling that a good friend's recent assertion that the audiophile is not the main target demographic here is about to be reinforced.

 

Of course it's important that artists get a fair price for their appearance on these services, but to me that's not an issue for the client to be concerned about. Reliability and a decent feature set - well that's a different matter isn't it.

 

As I say, totally happy to have egg on my face by the end of the afternoon if wrong.

To me this has nothing to do with what each party thinks about each other. If as you say, "those issues are between the streaming service providers and the artists," this still effects the end user greatly. If you're a Spotify user you no longer have access to Taylor Swift content because of her issues with the service provider. There's a direct relationship between everyone involved here. If, and I really mean if, Jay Z is able to get the Beatles on Tidal due to better terms for the artists, this is a huge win for everyone, not just a nonsense issue between the Beatles and Jay Z.

 

You are 100% right that audiophiles are not the main target for Tidal. No streaming business can make enough money from audiophiles alone. We make up a fraction of their business. The service would cease to exist if we were its main focus.

[The Computer Audiophile]

You are probably right in what you say about the numbers of audiophiles. I guess this means I fit the Qobuz demographic a lot better. That service seems to have quality at the center of what it does, whereas it looks increasingly as if Tidal is aimed at the mainstream. It's all good, I'll just stay a Qobuz customer and see if I'm wrong about this afternoon's announcements.

 

There's another way of looking at the Freemium model from a business standpoint. I can see that major artists see it as a drain on previous income levels, but what about all the lesser know artists we have discovered through streaming services...

I believe Qobuz will have to seek a more mainstream market as well if it wants to remain in business.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Nothing wrong with that. It's all about how you do it. Qobuz has a superb service infrastructure and an amazing repertoire, which is really all the audiophile is concerned with - i.e. can I download lossless/hi res albums to the desktop app and does it stream very reliably? These are two issues that have been major problems with Tidal from the get go and it looks like they're still not going to be top of the agenda. But I could be wrong. Not long to wait now.

I hear you about the Tidal issues, but fortunately the company just made major upgrades and I haven't had a single issue since.

[The Computer Audiophile]

No desktop app with downloading capability could be a deal breaker for me .

I sense this is a common theme. Why do you want downloading capability so bad? Just a question, no judgement.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Tidal could be a great music service . Excellent sound quality , decent music library , good interface .

 

But they can't get streaming to work properly so what good is it ? It's critical to success .

Jimmy - I highly recommend you quit subscribing to TIDAL. This will save you massive amounts of time because you will no longer have to comment in every thread multiple times about your issues. Over the course of a year this could save you a lot of time :~)

[The Computer Audiophile]

I would but it works flawlessly with my Auralic Aries . If that goes down the tubes , I will stop subscribing as it is the only thing keeping me as a subscriber .

 

I just can't stand a company having a big conference claiming how much better they will do for artists when the music those artists create cannot even be streamed properly .

 

It reminds me of Rhapsody when I had it years ago . Lots of login and streaming hiccups .

Should the company stop all promotion if a single person can't stream its product on his computer? Doesn't make much sense to me. Have you tried this into a different computer?