GA Russell Posted March 14, 2015 Report Posted March 14, 2015 Jay Z and his friends plan to compete with Spotify, paying higher royalties, and offering better sound. http://www.showbiz411.com/2015/03/13/exclusive-jay-z-had-secret-pow-wow-with-music-superstars-including-beyonce-madonna-kanye-coldplay-to-start-renegade-streaming-service Quote
Eric Posted March 14, 2015 Report Posted March 14, 2015 Jay Z and his friends plan to compete with Spotify, paying higher royalties, and offering better sound. http://www.showbiz411.com/2015/03/13/exclusive-jay-z-had-secret-pow-wow-with-music-superstars-including-beyonce-madonna-kanye-coldplay-to-start-renegade-streaming-service Looks like they bought Tidal. Unlike Spotify, they stream lossless. I have been using them for 4-5 months and prefer it to Spotify. For me, their interface is much less cluttered and cleaner than what Spotify has become. Unfortunately, they charge $19.95 per month which is 2X Spotify. I am hard-wired to buy physical product , so I use both Spotify and Tidal to preview music as much as anything. I think I will pass on the editorial content ... not b/c it is Jay Z, but hey, I just want to listen. Quote
CJ Shearn Posted March 15, 2015 Report Posted March 15, 2015 Smart move to stream lossless. We get HD quality video on Netflix but still since most people prefer lower quality MP3 the music still suffers. I rip everything from my collection to my laptop losslessly or to save space 320 kbPS MP3 (I have a hard time telling the difference between that and the CD) I decided that for some of the Blue Note stuff on HDTracks of things I don't have I'll do that, but I still get the CD's of new releases and reissues when I can, even if I just rip everything to my laptop these days. Quote
GA Russell Posted March 30, 2015 Author Report Posted March 30, 2015 Jay Z and his friends started promoting Tidal over the weekend. I think they are now open for business. http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/03/30/jay-zs-music-streaming-service-tidal-readies-for-relaunch/ Remember when Taylor Swift made headlines for pulling all of her music from Spotify? It looks like Tidal will pay her what she wants. http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/25/taylor-swift-streaming-tidal/ Quote
Scott Dolan Posted March 31, 2015 Report Posted March 31, 2015 (edited) Smart move to stream lossless. We get HD quality video on Netflix but still since most people prefer lower quality MP3 the music still suffers. I rip everything from my collection to my laptop losslessly or to save space 320 kbPS MP3 (I have a hard time telling the difference between that and the CD).Spotify streams 320kbps for their premium subscription. I haven't heard it because I don't do streaming services, but I'd bet money you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between it and lossless. And to be fair, I don't know that people "prefer" lower quality MP3, I just think the price is right for them. Edited March 31, 2015 by Scott Dolan Quote
GA Russell Posted March 31, 2015 Author Report Posted March 31, 2015 Jay Z and his friends plan to compete with Spotify, paying higher royalties, and offering better sound. http://www.showbiz411.com/2015/03/13/exclusive-jay-z-had-secret-pow-wow-with-music-superstars-including-beyonce-madonna-kanye-coldplay-to-start-renegade-streaming-service Looks like they bought Tidal. Unlike Spotify, they stream lossless. I have been using them for 4-5 months and prefer it to Spotify. For me, their interface is much less cluttered and cleaner than what Spotify has become. Unfortunately, they charge $19.95 per month which is 2X Spotify. I am hard-wired to buy physical product , so I use both Spotify and Tidal to preview music as much as anything. I think I will pass on the editorial content ... not b/c it is Jay Z, but hey, I just want to listen. Smart move to stream lossless. We get HD quality video on Netflix but still since most people prefer lower quality MP3 the music still suffers. I rip everything from my collection to my laptop losslessly or to save space 320 kbPS MP3 (I have a hard time telling the difference between that and the CD). Spotify streams 320kbps for their premium subscription. I haven't heard it because I don't do streaming services, but I'd bet money you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between it and lossless. And to be fair, I don't know that people "prefer" lower quality MP3, I just think the price is right for them. Speaking of prices, the Wall St. Journal article linked to in post #4 says that Tidal's new price will be $9.99; apparently the same price as its competitors' but for arguably better service. Quote
Scott Dolan Posted March 31, 2015 Report Posted March 31, 2015 Let's call it "theoretically better". Quote
GA Russell Posted March 31, 2015 Author Report Posted March 31, 2015 "Theoretically" because you doubt the merits of lossless downloads, or because you doubt the merits of Taylot Swift's inclusion in the mix? Quote
Scott Dolan Posted March 31, 2015 Report Posted March 31, 2015 You know, it's funny you say that. My wife bought that new Taylor Swift album, and while it's not really my cup of tea, I find pretty inoffensive. She's a horrifying singer outside of the studio, but I find nothing wrong with her music. I've certainly heard far worse. Quote
Eric Posted March 31, 2015 Report Posted March 31, 2015 I did notice this am that their mobile layout looks a little more "Spotify", but it is still a cleaner experience. Moving to $9.99 should be a huge plus. Quote
jcam_44 Posted March 31, 2015 Report Posted March 31, 2015 Is the "hifi" $9.99. I was looking into it yesterday and it looked to still be $19.99 Quote
CJ Shearn Posted April 1, 2015 Report Posted April 1, 2015 Smart move to stream lossless. We get HD quality video on Netflix but still since most people prefer lower quality MP3 the music still suffers. I rip everything from my collection to my laptop losslessly or to save space 320 kbPS MP3 (I have a hard time telling the difference between that and the CD). Spotify streams 320kbps for their premium subscription. I haven't heard it because I don't do streaming services, but I'd bet money you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between it and lossless. And to be fair, I don't know that people "prefer" lower quality MP3, I just think the price is right for them. That's an interesting thought Scott! I never considered that! that the price must be right. Still even "hi res" versions won't make a difference if the mastering sucks to begin with.......... I heard the samples of the new Eliane Elias "I Love Brazil" on HDTracks just as a curiosity it sounds pretty bad mastering wise. Quote
sonnymax Posted April 1, 2015 Report Posted April 1, 2015 According to the Tidal website, there are two subscriptions that offer different quality streams: Premium ($9.99/month) Standard quality: 96 kbps (AAC +); High quality: 320 kbps (AAC) HiFi ($19.99/month) Flac 1411 kbps - Lossless (16/44.1 khz) Quote
Eric Posted April 1, 2015 Report Posted April 1, 2015 (edited) According to the Tidal website, there are two subscriptions that offer different quality streams: Premium ($9.99/month) Standard quality: 96 kbps (AAC +); High quality: 320 kbps (AAC) HiFi ($19.99/month) Flac 1411 kbps - Lossless (16/44.1 khz) That makes some sense, although as I understand it, Spotify offers a "free with ads" tier whereas Tidal does not. I use/pay for both, Spotify for the family, Tidal for me My preference for Tidal is more around the look & feel, so maybe I'll make the move to "premium" from "HiFi". Having said that, can I tell the difference in sound quality between the two? Honestly I have never tried to compare the two under "serious listening conditions". My only commentary on the whole sound quality thing is that *occasionally* when I play music from iTunes to my stereo, I will have a reaction along the lines of "that sounds like crap". And, sure enough, when I check, it is an mp3. But that is probably on older mp3s and I have never really had that reaction using Spotify. FWIW, and I am sure I am in the significant minority, but I often use these services to "preview" something that I will later buy. But I think that is generational "have to own the physical copy" or maybe just stupid (i.e why?) Edited April 1, 2015 by Eric Quote
A Lark Ascending Posted April 1, 2015 Report Posted April 1, 2015 The problem that will emerge with lots of competing streaming systems is that they'll all have different content (probably with overlap). I'm not sure many customers are going to want to subscribe to several streaming sites to cover their interest. Back in the early days of online CD sites there were loads of small vendors - most have been swept away as a few successful giants (and one in particular) have eaten up the competition. Imagine the same will happen here. I can't imagine many people beyond a niche audience will be prepared to pay more for the sonic upgrade. I'm comfortable with mp3 quality and I probably play more music than most (members of this board excepted). Where music is something you like but not the centre of your entertainment world I somehow doubt the prospects for high definition this or that are going to mean a lot. Quote
GA Russell Posted April 16, 2015 Author Report Posted April 16, 2015 Jay Z's Tidal is receiving criticism from some artists. http://radio.com/2015/04/15/mumford-sons-ben-gibbard-lily-allen-tidal-hate/ Quote
CJ Shearn Posted April 16, 2015 Report Posted April 16, 2015 According to the Tidal website, there are two subscriptions that offer different quality streams: Premium ($9.99/month) Standard quality: 96 kbps (AAC +); High quality: 320 kbps (AAC) HiFi ($19.99/month) Flac 1411 kbps - Lossless (16/44.1 khz) That makes some sense, although as I understand it, Spotify offers a "free with ads" tier whereas Tidal does not. I use/pay for both, Spotify for the family, Tidal for me My preference for Tidal is more around the look & feel, so maybe I'll make the move to "premium" from "HiFi". Having said that, can I tell the difference in sound quality between the two? Honestly I have never tried to compare the two under "serious listening conditions". My only commentary on the whole sound quality thing is that *occasionally* when I play music from iTunes to my stereo, I will have a reaction along the lines of "that sounds like crap". And, sure enough, when I check, it is an mp3. But that is probably on older mp3s and I have never really had that reaction using Spotify. FWIW, and I am sure I am in the significant minority, but I often use these services to "preview" something that I will later buy. But I think that is generational "have to own the physical copy" or maybe just stupid (i.e why?) Not stupid at all, Eric. I have adjusted to the joys of having both a physical and digital music collection. I have ripped my entire collection to the hard drive, and I pull everything up in the Windows Media Player library, which is great because it gets me to listen to albums I rarely do, and stuff I haven't heard in a long time. The CD's will always be there for back up and also documentation/packaging etc. Quote
Scott Dolan Posted April 16, 2015 Report Posted April 16, 2015 And I'm right there with CJ. I already owned 1,000+ CDs, and have ripped many of them to my digital library. But, I no longer buy physical copies since digital compression technology has finally caught up sonically. That said, I certainly don't think wanting physical copies is stupid. Not by any stretch. Quote
GA Russell Posted April 22, 2015 Author Report Posted April 22, 2015 This article says that Jay Z's Tidal "is already a spectacular flop." http://bgr.com/2015/04/21/tidal-vs-pandora-vs-spotify/ Quote
David Ayers Posted April 26, 2015 Report Posted April 26, 2015 The London Times described the launch as well meant but naive in thinking the emphasis on sound quality would make any difference to the people who just torrent all their music and never pay for anything anyway. Quote
GA Russell Posted April 26, 2015 Author Report Posted April 26, 2015 Someone posted a comment (to the article linked to in post #19) that said that Jay Z and his friends all appeal to the same market. I think that's right. If they had been joined by country, jazz and classical stars, maybe more people would have signed up. Quote
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