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Putting Tidal in Perspective


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One of my neighbors is a 22 year old female college student. She is a music lover (mostly top 40 pop) and she

also plays piano and violin,. She and her boyfriend share a family plan subscription to Apple Music.

 

She LOVES it. She also has been on Spotify

 

I asked her how Apple Music compared to Tidal.

 

Answer: "Tidal? Never heard of it..."

 

I mentioned Jay-Z as part owner..still no familiarity.

 

So a little perspective. I think Tidal in the end is a VERY small player in streaming.

 

 

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If you really want to put it into perspective, look at Tencent from China.  QQMusic has 700 million users, with over 120 million paid subscribers.  Tencent has the only streaming service that turns a profit.

 

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/chinas-tencent-music-streaming-service-goes-public-in-the-u-s-732141/

 

However, I don't think I've seen anyone here or anywhere claim that Tidal is a real player with their tiny numbers compared to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Google, etc., so perhaps it was giving them more "ink" than they deserve by starting a thread about Tidal at all.  :D lol

 

Also, while a certain company made a big thing about streaming live in their format, Tencent streamed live video in Dolby Vision last month.  Some weird celebrity sporting event lmao, but still... ?

 

http://investor.dolby.com/news-releases/news-release-details/tencent-video-stream-worlds-first-live-event-dolby-vision

请教别人一次是5分钟的傻子,从不请教别人是一辈子的傻子

 

 

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29 minutes ago, Brinkman Ship said:

One of my neighbors is a 22 year old female college student. She is a music lover (mostly top 40 pop) and she

also plays piano and violin,. She and her boyfriend share a family plan subscription to Apple Music.

 

She LOVES it. She also has been on Spotify

 

I asked her how Apple Music compared to Tidal.

 

Answer: "Tidal? Never heard of it..."

 

I mentioned Jay-Z as part owner..still no familiarity.

 

So a little perspective. I think Tidal in the end is a VERY small player in streaming.

 

 

Very true. We often forget what a small world the audiophile world is. Spotify adds more users each year than the total at Tidal. And just another reason to think “MQA is vapor ware”.

Main listening (small home office):

Main setup: Surge protector +>Isol-8 Mini sub Axis Power Strip/Isolation>QuietPC Low Noise Server>Roon (Audiolense DRC)>Stack Audio Link II>Kii Control>Kii Three (on their own electric circuit) >GIK Room Treatments.

Secondary Path: Server with Audiolense RC>RPi4 or analog>Cayin iDAC6 MKII (tube mode) (XLR)>Kii Three .

Bedroom: SBTouch to Cambridge Soundworks Desktop Setup.
Living Room/Kitchen: Ropieee (RPi3b+ with touchscreen) + Schiit Modi3E to a pair of Morel Hogtalare. 

All absolute statements about audio are false :)

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3 minutes ago, firedog said:

Very true. We often forget what a small world the audiophile world is. Spotify adds more users each year than the total at Tidal. And just another reason to think “MQA is vapor ware”.

Yes, but what makes it a bit puzzling is that Tidal also offers a lossy tier of service..and still not traction.

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6 minutes ago, Brinkman Ship said:

Yes, but what makes it a bit puzzling is that Tidal also offers a lossy tier of service..and still not traction.

No free tier to attract initial.users may have something to do with it, as does their inferior user interface.

Main listening (small home office):

Main setup: Surge protector +>Isol-8 Mini sub Axis Power Strip/Isolation>QuietPC Low Noise Server>Roon (Audiolense DRC)>Stack Audio Link II>Kii Control>Kii Three (on their own electric circuit) >GIK Room Treatments.

Secondary Path: Server with Audiolense RC>RPi4 or analog>Cayin iDAC6 MKII (tube mode) (XLR)>Kii Three .

Bedroom: SBTouch to Cambridge Soundworks Desktop Setup.
Living Room/Kitchen: Ropieee (RPi3b+ with touchscreen) + Schiit Modi3E to a pair of Morel Hogtalare. 

All absolute statements about audio are false :)

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I have to admit that one of Tidal's best attributes is the MQA library that forgoes the annoying watermarks from Universal's catalog.  The military discount that I enjoy as a veteran at $11.99 USD per month is a nice deal as well.  

 

Without Roon, the Tidal desktop and web application simply do not work for me.  I'm not a playlist fan.  I want a complete library of albums like a personal record store where I can shuffle the entire contents.  I also want the ability to add my own music to seamlessly fill in any gaps with music that would embed itself into the entire ecosystem from streaming holdouts; though, perhaps maybe not Taylor Swift's latest recordings.

 

If Qobuz launches in the US and works with Roon, as is the current rumor, and the watermarks are not present, I would drop Tidal immediately.

 

The interface is so important to me that I would rather go back to mp3 and Google music if Tidal sees any detrimental changes rather than look for a lossless solution without the features I enjoy.  If Roon and Google played nicely together, I'd take that too.

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2 minutes ago, Sonicularity said:

I have to admit that one of Tidal's best attributes is the MQA library that forgoes the annoying watermarks from Universal's catalog.  The military discount that I enjoy as a veteran at $11.99 USD per month is a nice deal as well.  

 

Without Roon, the Tidal desktop and web application simply do not work for me.  I'm not a playlist fan.  I want a complete library of albums like a personal record store where I can shuffle the entire contents.  I also want the ability to add my own music to seamlessly fill in any gaps with music that would embed itself into the entire ecosystem from streaming holdouts; though, perhaps maybe not Taylor Swift's latest recordings.

 

If Qobuz launches in the US and works with Roon, as is the current rumor, and the watermarks are not present, I would drop Tidal immediately.

 

The interface is so important to me that I would rather go back to mp3 and Google music if Tidal sees any detrimental changes rather than look for a lossless solution without the features I enjoy.  If Roon and Google played nicely together, I'd take that too.

Interesting perspective. Thanks. Do you happen to remember where you first heard of Tidal?

 

For some reason I don't recall..it may have been from a Rolling Stone article.

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2 hours ago, Sonicularity said:

I have to admit that one of Tidal's best attributes is the MQA library that forgoes the annoying watermarks from Universal's catalog.  The military discount that I enjoy as a veteran at $11.99 USD per month is a nice deal as well.  

 

Without Roon, the Tidal desktop and web application simply do not work for me.  I'm not a playlist fan.  I want a complete library of albums like a personal record store where I can shuffle the entire contents.  I also want the ability to add my own music to seamlessly fill in any gaps with music that would embed itself into the entire ecosystem from streaming holdouts; though, perhaps maybe not Taylor Swift's latest recordings.

 

If Qobuz launches in the US and works with Roon, as is the current rumor, and the watermarks are not present, I would drop Tidal immediately.

 

The interface is so important to me that I would rather go back to mp3 and Google music if Tidal sees any detrimental changes rather than look for a lossless solution without the features I enjoy.  If Roon and Google played nicely together, I'd take that too.

The other alternative to Tidal everyone forgets about is Deeer, which also has a lossless tier; it has quite a good interface, too. 

Main listening (small home office):

Main setup: Surge protector +>Isol-8 Mini sub Axis Power Strip/Isolation>QuietPC Low Noise Server>Roon (Audiolense DRC)>Stack Audio Link II>Kii Control>Kii Three (on their own electric circuit) >GIK Room Treatments.

Secondary Path: Server with Audiolense RC>RPi4 or analog>Cayin iDAC6 MKII (tube mode) (XLR)>Kii Three .

Bedroom: SBTouch to Cambridge Soundworks Desktop Setup.
Living Room/Kitchen: Ropieee (RPi3b+ with touchscreen) + Schiit Modi3E to a pair of Morel Hogtalare. 

All absolute statements about audio are false :)

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3 hours ago, Brinkman Ship said:

One of my neighbors is a 22 year old female college student. She is a music lover (mostly top 40 pop) and she

also plays piano and violin,. She and her boyfriend share a family plan subscription to Apple Music.

 

She LOVES it. She also has been on Spotify

 

I asked her how Apple Music compared to Tidal.

 

Answer: "Tidal? Never heard of it..."

 

I mentioned Jay-Z as part owner..still no familiarity.

 

So a little perspective. I think Tidal in the end is a VERY small player in streaming.

 

 

Playing piano and violin may help to balance it out, but I'm not entirely sure that someone into top 40 pop qualifies as a "music" lover. Any more than someone who enjoys cartoons is an art lover!

 

JC

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25 minutes ago, firedog said:

The other alternative to Tidal everyone forgets about is Deeer, which also has a lossless tier; it has quite a good interface, too. 

I believe the concern with Deezer is that it's losless library is quite small. Here is a quote from PC Mag's review, which was very positive about the interface and sound (saying the sound was comparable to Tidal)

 

"Like Tidal, Deezer delivers CD-quality, lossless FLAC streams via its $19.99 HiFi plan. You get 16-bit, 1,411Kbps audio, but with a somewhat smaller music catalog; the HiFi library has 36 million songs, while the other plans' libraries have 53 million songs."

 

 

And is it financially healthy or also in danger of going under from not turning a profit?

 

JC

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9 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

I have always wanted a personal letter from Apple so here goes...

 

Perhaps what TIDAL should do is undertake a media blitz to explain how Apple is stealing music from consumers by compressing it, which takes away musical information that is gone forever, never ever to be found again.  But here at TIDAL, we stream the FULL quality signal for the same money!

 

TIDAL, if you use this idea I am not at fault if you get sued, but I want some of the profits if it works!

 

?

Well done Doc, I couldn't have said it better myself!

JC

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4 hours ago, Brinkman Ship said:

I never judge musical taste.

 

So with this thread you disregard Sound Quality. OK.

What about MQA ?

Lush^3-e      Lush^2      Blaxius^2.5      Ethernet^3     HDMI^2     XLR^2

XXHighEnd (developer)

Phasure NOS1 24/768 Async USB DAC (manufacturer)

Phasure Mach III Audio PC with Linear PSU (manufacturer)

Orelino & Orelo MKII Speakers (designer/supplier)

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Comparing Tidal with Spotify or Apple Music is as apples and oranges. Unless it is about the numbers and SQ is disregarded.

And if you so that, you just as well can use MQA. swoon.gif.08191b5df7302d5e7e4e3e09b160eb38.gif

Lush^3-e      Lush^2      Blaxius^2.5      Ethernet^3     HDMI^2     XLR^2

XXHighEnd (developer)

Phasure NOS1 24/768 Async USB DAC (manufacturer)

Phasure Mach III Audio PC with Linear PSU (manufacturer)

Orelino & Orelo MKII Speakers (designer/supplier)

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11 minutes ago, PeterSt said:

Comparing Tidal with Spotify or Apple Music is as apples and oranges. Unless it is about the numbers and SQ is disregarded.

And if you so that, you just as well can use MQA. swoon.gif.08191b5df7302d5e7e4e3e09b160eb38.gif

The purpose of this thread was strictly just to offer anecdotal info on brand recognition.  That is it. Apple Music and Spotify are massive Blue Whales and Tidal is not even a microbe. 

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36 minutes ago, Brinkman Ship said:

The purpose of this thread was strictly just to offer anecdotal info on brand recognition.  That is it. Apple Music and Spotify are massive Blue Whales and Tidal is not even a microbe. 

I would have to say that this applies to Qobuz and Deezer also and not just Tidal.  All three hi-fi streaming services are a blip.  From financial perspective I would say Tidal is the one that is most on shaky ground (strictly based on the news reports/rumors).  Deezer just received quarter of a billion dollar from one of the Saudi investment management funds.  Qobuz came out of bankruptcy and seems to be more stable now.

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Anecdotal:

My wife comes from a family of 8 siblings with an equally procreative bent as her mother and father. Consequently, once a year we get together with this brood of nieces and nephews. I have over the years asked them if they knew what Tidal was.

 

Not one of them has ever heard of it. They "kind of" heard about JayZ and his music streaming, but nothing about Tidal. LOL -at least two thought JayZ was with Apple music. 

 

They all use Spotify, some have Spotify Premium, but most go with the free tier.

 

FWIW, I unsubscribed to Tidal several months ago after years of subscribership and have signed on with Spotify Premium while waiting for Qobuz in the USA.

 

"The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought", Sir Thomas Beecham. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, rodrigaj said:

Anecdotal:

My wife comes from a family of 8 siblings with an equally procreative bent as her mother and father. Consequently, once a year we get together with this brood of nieces and nephews. I have over the years asked them if they knew what Tidal was.

 

Not one of them has ever heard of it. They "kind of" heard about JayZ and his music streaming, but nothing about Tidal. LOL -at least two thought JayZ was with Apple music. 

 

They all use Spotify, some have Spotify Premium, but most go with the free tier.

 

FWIW, I unsubscribed to Tidal several months ago after years of subscribership and have signed on with Spotify Premium while waiting for Qobuz in the USA.

thanks, interesting. without widespread recognition among consumers under 30 I don't know how Tidal can survive.

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