Which one do you prefer?
I am seeing plenty of mixed opinions about both Spotify and Tidal. Some are saying Spotify is the best, others say it’s bloated, others think it’s annoying it’s also an app for podcasts. Some people really like Tidal, but I have mostly seen negative opinions about it - worse song recommendations, no difference in audio, too expensive.
As someone who doesn’t care very much for song recommendations I can’t decide which one is ideal for me personally. Tidal seems to pay artists better, but the criticism it receives makes me unsure. What do y’all think?
Exactly the 2 reasons I switched from Spotify to Tidal. The only complaint I have from Tidal is that sometimes the offline playlists take 15-20s to start playing. But it could also be my phone or for having the offline stuff on the SD card
I tried Tidal 2 years ago and it was a solid experience, even had better coverage of artists available than spotify when i looked. Tools help with setting over your playlists and such.
The reason I haven’t gone over to Tidal, is that their shuffle is broken still to this day. If you have a playlist of let’s say 1000 songs, the app will only load the first 500 entries or so until you start scrolling down. Shuffle happens on your end, not on theirs, and since it doesn’t load the songs until you scroll down, shuffling will only take those first 500 into account. It’s absolutely ridiculous that this isn’t being fixed, it support knew about it 1 years ago and still nothing’s changed. That’s unacceptable for such basic behaviour imo.
I tried Tidal. The interface is decent enough. Audio quality is obviously better if you take advantage of hifi.
The reason I didn't stick with it is that I do want the recommendations, and tidal was terrible there. So if you don't care about that, go for it.
I honestly think Spotify is better because mote people use it. Its been a while for me but there's just way more music and the app is nicer. There have veen a dew times where Ive been really tempted to go back but I end up just forgetting lol. I pay for Tidal bc ethics and YouTube Premium and I get pretty much all my music needs met.
I was on Tidal forever ago. To answer the most important question, no the higher quality audio files aren't total snake oil. Certain offerings definitely sound better. Amazon Music generally offers higher sound quality though. Tidal also do pay artists better, but Napster is the best about payment if I'm not mistaken (ironic as fuck).
As for the app though... It's been a few years, but this is where everything that offers sound quality goes to shit. The desktop player was ass and the website was ass. It didn't know how to handle Last.fm and other things I'd consider basics for Audiophiles. Amazon Music's UI was even worse, I cancelled it after 2 days.
Spotify has the best value proposition. Hulu+Spotify for 10 bucks is good. I also question how long Tidal will be able to continue existing.
- Spotify - 1 month free sub.
- Deezer - 1 month free.
- YT music - 1 month free.
- Amazon Music - 3 months free.
I'm on AM atm, once it runs out I'll try Tidal.
Edit: Apparently you can also get 1 month of Apple Music for free, but it seems to have region-locked language, but I'll try it as well.
I love my Tidal, me and my partner both use it. I generally really like the track radio and the mixes it serves up for me.
I switched to Tidal after Spotify suddenly killed the API libspotify was using.
It takes a while for Tidal to "learn" what kind of music I like. I think Spotify got it sooner. Now the recommendations are pretty good.
I hate that they copied the weird queue management from Spotify. What can't I just tell the player to play another album after the one that is currently playing finishes? It surprises me it is not a more common compliant.
