Just cancelled my Tidal subscription since it looks like there is almost no difference in the music I care about between Tidal and Qobuz anymore. 

I need to try out Qobuz too.....Tidal hasn't been bad for me, and there's SW that let's you rip for offline use.  But the MQA thing does bug me....thankfully most of the music I've been streaming isn't MQA.

I think I’m jumping ship to (cr)Apple music soon. Once lossless is ubiquitous, Tidal loses a lot of its draw. 
 

Edit: OK, just watched the video. Goodbye, Tidal. That video is so damning. 

Edited May 28, 20215 yr by TMoney

There’s now a part 2, if you feel like spending some more time: 

There’s pure insanity going on surrounding this on various forums. The pro-MQA crowd is now engaged in trench-warfare trying to discredit the guy who posted these videos. Changed its tune to “well we never said it was lossless — it’s lossy but BETTER than lame old lossless!”. There’s an edit war going on in the Wikipedia MQA article.

If MQA was a nothing-burger that didn't add anything over lossless I would have just shrugged and kept using Tidal. Bit-perfect lossless is the goal.

Those videos suggest that MQA tracks generated from hi-rez masters actually harm the sound vs. just having a redbook FLAC. That is totally unacceptable.

21 minutes ago, TMoney said:

Those videos suggest that MQA tracks generated from hi-rez masters actually harm the sound vs. just having a redbook FLAC. That is totally unacceptable.

Come on, didn't you read the marketing copy? By being lossy in weird obtuse ways, MQA is now better than lossless!

 

I'm watching this manufactured drama unfold with morbid fascination. I just wish I knew what problem MQA was supposed to solve. Want lossless? FLAC. Want compression? MP3, AAC, Vorbis. Is MQA a better lossy compression? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Just give the community enough resources to actually test it and prove it.

Left Tidal for Qobuz a long time ago. Qobuz has real hi-rez. 

Just added Qobuz trial, will play for the 30 days via Roon and go from there.....

I’m on the Qobuz trial, too. Playing through Audirvana, which gives 90 days. Enjoying the curated content, and it actually sounds better than Tidal to me. Too bad there’s no easy way to ABX, or I’d give it a shot. 

I've been on Deezer for years.  Not the greatest interface but FLAC quality and I've got playlists I've invested in creating...

I've often wondered whether they will continue to survive in the U.S. but so far so good.  Only odd thing was I once had to cancel to enjoy a reduced rate that was more reasonable ($15/mo vs a good bit more if memory serves).

HS

Had never heard of Primephonic before this, but interesting news for the classical music fans who have Apple Music.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/30/22648604/apple-acquires-primephonic-classical-music-streaming-service

Yeah, I tried Primephonic for the trial period when I first heard of it many months...or a year? ago, it was...fine.

So TIDAL is apparently catching up a tiny bit with the times....just got an email, and they now have 3 tiers:

• Free tier with basically MP3 quality
• HiFi tier with CD ( ? ) quality
• HiFi Plus tier with HiRez quality where available

I was in the HiFi tier, and got upgraded to HiFi Plus at same price.  No word of course on MQA.....at least not in the skimming I saw.

I'll likely hang on to it for longer now, but will see about ultra-long-term.

I got a complimentary upgrade!

Me n+1!

Additionally, they promised to give my favourite band every month 10% of my fee -- that's like $1.50, which is about $1.50 more (with rounding) than they're getting from Spotify, as I tend to listen to some very underground bands.
https://tidal.com/formusic?showLove=true&crm=true

Just decided to keep Tidal, if for nothing else, for that.

Of course, in April, that'll probably be Kylie Minogue, but that's okay.

Speaking of which, 

Slickdeals points out three months trial, any plan, for $1

https://slickdeals.net/f/15409318-tidal-music-subscription-3-months-1-00-any-plan-bestbuy

In the comments they point out best buy has 6 month of apple music for free* (new subscribers only) 

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/apple-free-apple-music-for-6-months-new-subscribers-only/6451501.p?skuId=6451501

But my favorite comment was 

"I just subscribed through Argentina via VPN it's like 1.5 usd a month for hifi"

Geographical Arbitrage FTW

Edited November 18, 20214 yr by Grahame

Seems the Spotify hifi tier timing is still unknown (missed earlier stated EOY). 
https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/All-Platforms-Music-HiFi-Quality-Lossless-Streaming-16bit-44/idc-p/5324421#M238504 

Edited January 9, 20224 yr by blessingx

^^ My son is waiting for that....I am giving him my Elac Discovery endpoint, it does Roon (he can't use that when they move to their new apt.) and Spotify connect.  I am also giving him a pair of speakers and a receiver.  Sounded good with Spotify, but not as good as with Tidal/Roon.....

Edited January 9, 20224 yr by skullguise

2 hours ago, blessingx said:

Seems the Spotify hifi tier timing is still unknown (missed earlier stated EOY). 
https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/All-Platforms-Music-HiFi-Quality-Lossless-Streaming-16bit-44/idc-p/5324421#M238504 

Jebus. How hard would it be for them to just start serving up 16/44.1 FLAC in addition to 16/44.1 MP3? Maybe an exclusive KS/WASAPI mode in the desktop app. That's all it would take for me to be a very happy camper.

Edited January 9, 20224 yr by Beefy

On 1/9/2022 at 2:07 PM, Beefy said:

Jebus. How hard would it be for them to just start serving up 16/44.1 FLAC in addition to 16/44.1 MP3? Maybe an exclusive KS/WASAPI mode in the desktop app. That's all it would take for me to be a very happy camper.

^^ Was just coming to post the same thing.....happy to see this!