#TIDAL ARTIST SUPPORT SOFTWARE#
Tidal is one of the only two music streaming services that integrate with Roon, the subscription software that aims to offer the kind of metadata-rich listening and recommendation system that none of the current streaming companies can begin to offer. Tidal’s typeface is just the right size for following along by yourself. Other music services use a larger font for their lyric function which makes them better for karaoke-style singalongs. Tidal includes a button on a song’s playback page to bring up the lyrics, which are provided by Musixmatch. A current favorite of mine is the 100-song Retroactive playlist that somehow includes Keith Richards, folk legend Karen Dalton, Frank Zappa, Son House, The Lemonheads, Yoko Ono, Aerosmith, Pavement, David Bowie, The Clean, Leo Nocentelli, Oasis, Ray Charles, R.E.M., Nancy Sinatra, Slint, PJ Harvey, and Black Sabbath in a 7-hour set that’s like spending a weekend with your most knowledgeable music-collector friend. Not only are the current hits lists programmed with a sense of musical flow, they consistently add creatively themed playlists that no algorithm could ever generate. Tidal’s playlist game is also impeccable. It’s that second and third tier of recommendations that show the service’s knowledge and love for the genre, with impeccable taste in both catalog albums and less-famous up-and-coming artists.
Of course, hip hop is currently the most popular genre of music in the United States and it’s not hard to program a site based on what’s hot right now. There’s a particular strength in hip hop. There’s a strong sense that actual humans are at the helm, or at least heavily tweaking whatever recommendation algorithm is behind the curtain.Īnother consistent strength at Tidal is a sense that the service is connected to what’s going on in contemporary music. Not only does Tidal makes the connection with other artists you might enjoy, but the titles it recommends are the ones that have the most musical or cultural connection to the one that inspired the recommendation. Other music services now serve up random titles by the same artist with no concern for quality or cultural relevance. The editors of Tidal’s home page make more interesting new-release suggestions than the competition. There’s a real sense that its decoding system was devised by engineers who actually listen to music, and the result is tracks with depth and detail that never fails to impress. How music makes you feel is what matters, and MQA sounds great. Neither result much resembles the sound the musicians made during the session. Some music sounds best through a cheap transistor radio and other sounds best through the most expensive hi-fi setup you could imagine. Once you start overdubbing, bouncing, and mixing, the results are never what anyone heard in his or her head during the recording process. What you get on tape or disc is never what you heard in the room. As someone who’s attended hundreds of recording sessions as a producer, A&R executive, publisher, and manager, I consider the very act of recording sound to be destructive.
Here’s where I set my audiophile credentials on fire.
#TIDAL ARTIST SUPPORT FREE#
Did the people who originally built the internet dream of an online utopia where information could be free and that we’d all use open standards? They sure did, but that’s not how things have shaken out. MQA is a proprietary format whose investors (which include major label Warner Music) are looking for a royalty payment when streamers like Tidal use the format or manufacturers make their gear compatible. Let’s dispense with the reasons people are so dead set against it. Tidal has two family plans that give up to six individuals living at the same address independent accounts for $14.99 per month (Tidal HiFi) or $29.99 per month (Tidal HiFi Plus). That’s a rarity in an industry that reaps rich rewards from musicians while paying them a pittance.
#TIDAL ARTIST SUPPORT PLUS#
A Tidal HiFi Plus plan supports streaming at rates up to 9,216Kbps for $19.99/month, and Tidal pays up to 10 percent of that subscription cost directly to each subscriber’s most-streamed artist. You’ll get CD-quality streams for $9.99/month.
The price of the service has changed, but mostly for the better. Let’s hope Tidal’s new majority shareholder, Square, keeps it that way. One thing that hasn’t changed: The depth and quality of the service’s library, particularly in terms of its high-resolution offerings. The music-streaming service Tidal has had its ups and downs since a cadre of artists ranging from Alicia Keys to Madonna, Jack White, and Deadmau5 headed up by Jay-Z acquired Tidal in early 2015.
Tidal exhibits a genuine commitment to music-streaming’s potential, with an obvious sense that the recommendations are maintained by a team who knows their music.
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