I really wanted to like tidal, but honestly it’s not really good. The search sucks, no offline mode on desktop, no official Linux client, an incomplete catalog…
It’s not worth it, even if they are the least bad for paying artists.
Tidal’s subscription is getting simpler and cheaper — yes, you read that right
Submitted 8 months ago by ominouslemon@lemm.ee to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/5/24091308/tidal-subscription-price-cut-high-res-atmos
Comments
loics2@lemm.ee 8 months ago
jul@feddit.de 8 months ago
honestly it’s not really good
*for you it isn’t
no offline mode on desktop
why would you need it? it’s supported on phones, just listen via phone?
no official Linux client
They are open sourcing their SDK though
an incomplete catalog
*for you. for me there isn’t
It’s not worth it, even if they are the least bad for paying artists
Again, for you. I rather support artists than some questionable monopolistic corporation
loics2@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Damn, you’re shilling hard!
I don’t want to use my phone for basic features like the offline mode, I’m not always connected to the internet on my laptop, that’s it.
I don’t care about Apple music, and almost every streaming platform provides some kind of SDK. It doesn’t change the fact that I don’t have a Linux client, and probably never will (or at least feature-complete) because they partly use Dolby Atmos, which is a closed-source licensed format.
And no, even on paper, tidal’s not the better option to support artists. Buy tracks on Bandcamp, buy merch and vinyl directly from artists…
Stamau123@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Why would you waste your own time with a comment like this?
deweydecibel@lemmy.world 8 months ago
no offline mode on desktop
why would you need it? it’s supported on phones, just listen via phone?
So you’re saying this use case works for you??
bitwolf@lemmy.one 8 months ago
You can use Plexamp as a Tidal client. I do this for offline music.
rbits@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Need a Plex server though :/ Also cost $6.50AUD a month, way too much.
loics2@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Good to know, thanks!
Pinecone@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The limited library was their biggest problem in my opinion. It’s acceptable if you want mainstream, well known artists centered on appealing to North America but there were so many international and independent groups that weren’t on the service. Higher quality streaming is only worth it if you can listen to what you like.
rbits@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Yeah. The number one reason I won’t subscribe is that if their library is missing a song, you can’t even add it yourself. Both Spotify and Apple Music allow adding your own MP3s, how does Tidal not have that feature?!
mellowheat@suppo.fi 8 months ago
no official Linux client
github.com/Mastermindzh/tidal-hifi does almost everything well. Unfortunately it cannot stream to other devices via Tidal Connect.
MasterHound@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Hope this is rolled out to other countries and not just the US.
morbidcactus@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
I got the email in Canada, so yes? It’s not uncommon for us to not get things when they do across the border.
SpyDallyCandour@programming.dev 8 months ago
UK here, also got the email.
MasterHound@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Oh nice! Knowing corporations though I’m just trying to figure out how they are going to screw us on this.
dutchkimble@lemy.lol 8 months ago
Not for Thailand yet, but the Thai price is anyway cheaper
pixguin@feddit.ch 8 months ago
It should be rolled out globally according to Tidal’s support article:
We’re updating our pricing for TIDAL globally
tigerjerusalem@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I like Tidal because its interface isn’t downright crap. What Spotify did to playlists and to the heart/cross button is so damn annoying.
filcuk@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
I love the change. I have many playlists and it has made my life so much easier organising everything.
tigerjerusalem@lemmy.world 8 months ago
How does it work better for you? To me it’s annoying, I cannot easily move folders around anymore, nor move playlists into folders if I’m not using the desktop app.
Also, the + (former ♥️ button) is the worst offender to me. I used to use the button to add a music to my big “liked” default list, the one that is more permanent, and the three dots to add it to a playlist, which are more fluid. So playlists come and go, and not every song on a playlist is the one i want on my definitive pool of “always wanted” songs.
The someone at Spotify decided to merge the + and three dots merged those, making it harder to now if a song is already in my main “liked” list.
Say I have a playlist I created, the + button is now a ✅ button. It tells me it’s saved somewhere. I have to tap it to see where, which 1. is completely unintuitive, because tapping a check button would create me the expectation of uncheking it, but it instead shows me a list of playlists! What in the freaking hell? This is decades of UI convention thrown out the windows for a really bad concept.
And 2, being checked doesn’t mean it’s my favorite song, just that it is saved on some playlist. It’s a mistery, which is only solved by tapping the schizophrenic +/✅ button, instead of simply saying to me “yep, you liked this song”.
So… Yeah. I hate Spotify.
bitwolf@lemmy.one 8 months ago
Tidal also pays artists significantly more than Spotify/ Apple Music. So they’re good-shittifying in both directions 🙂
Zink@pawb.social 8 months ago
A rare instance of… unshittification?
ripcord@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Yeah, like, when services are actually trying to compete for your business. It’s so nice when it (rarely) happens!
lepinkainen@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Don’t forget that Apple Music also pays significantly more than Spotify. Just not as much as Tidal.
bitwolf@lemmy.one 8 months ago
Oh yeah Spotify is definitely the worst in comparison
Retrograde@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Interesting, what is this “reverse enshittification” you speak of
Tikiporch@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Wipe-ification?
deweydecibel@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I’ve been using Deezer for a while, but I’ve been looking to move to something else after they absolutely mutilated their UI and actively insulted any paying customer that complained.
astreus@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
Been using tidal ever since Spotify’s Joe Rogan debacle. Main reason? They actually pay the artist. But the sound quality is a nice bonus as well! No regrets…other than people trying to share music with me by sending a spotify link!
aleph@lemm.ee 8 months ago
They still don’t pay the artists all that much. No streaming services do.
If you genuinely want to support artists financially, then but their music outright through online store like Bandcamp or Qobuz.
Squizzy@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Man fuck Joe Rogan, basic boring prick
ominouslemon@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Qobuz has the most beautiful and serious-looking UI I’ve tried, I really love it. But I had to stop using it because there is no lyrics integration and some of my favorite (admittedly obscure) music was not there. But the UI is spectacular, especially on desktop
accideath@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Try apple music. Also has lossless audio for the same price and has a great app, even on android and it does have a pretty good lyrics integration.
Only on non Apple Desktops it’s a bit lacking since your choice is either the ancient iTunes or the web app
noodlejetski@lemm.ee 8 months ago
I just ended up installing Deemix and moving my library to offline storage.
wolfruff@pawb.social 8 months ago
Deezer is still great because you can upload personal music to your account and I find they have alot more music available than every other service Ive tried.
Not to mention they pay the artists better and hifi is automatically included too so. I went from Spotify > YT Music > Deezer and I am very happy. The UI is not as bad as everyone makes it, imo the icons are just a little uglier in some places thats it.
jetsetdorito@lemm.ee 8 months ago
I really liked Deezer a few years ago, I thought about trying it again but saw the new UI and was like wtf
EndHD@lemm.ee 8 months ago
The headline sounded good but the article lists a lot of negatives too. They’re removing discounts for veterans/first responders, they recently laid off 10% of staff, and their price now matches Amazon and Apple. So don’t mistake this for good intention; this is just a business’ survival instincts taking over.
deweydecibel@lemmy.world 8 months ago
their price now matches Amazon and Apple
That’s a negative?
So don’t mistake this for good intention; this is just a business’ survival instincts taking over.
A business made a business decision, yes. Your point?
Electric_Druid@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Any variation of “yep, you read that right” makes me instantly not care, idk
ominouslemon@lemm.ee 8 months ago
It does sound clickbait-y and I guess that’s why there are butthurt people in the comments. I guess its meaning is “literally everyone is raising prices, while Tidal is lowering them”. TBF I also had to read the title again because it’s pretty strange to see prices decrease
Electric_Druid@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I mean good on tidal for doing that, no hate towards them.
drivepiler@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I read the email from Tidal four times and still didn’t believe they weren’t trying to fuck me over. Well, I’ll be damned.
Deadful@lemmy.world 8 months ago
As far as I can tell, I’m actually in the vast minority in that I use the service on a family plan and with my DJ gear. Streaming for DJs is being removed from family plans and it now requires me to pay for an individual plan + $9 a month in addition to what I’m already paying for the wife and kids, so I’m thinking about canning it.
nick@midwest.social 8 months ago
Good news for the seven people who use tidal!
Codilingus@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
I wish it was getting cheaper…I’ve been @ $6.35/month for their CD FLAC quality middle tier, with my veteran discount for a few years.
Has been perfect for my budget HiFi setup.
Now it’s nearly doubling in cost, and they won’t have the discount anymore…
Renorc@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Tidal may not be the best streamer. It certainly does have its faults. But so do the others mentioned in these comments. For a subscription service to halve their rate is really unheard of. I certainly appreciate it. This is really the type of pricing movement we need after so many years of out of control inflation. I wish Amazon, Disney, and Netflix would do something similar rather than endless cost increases without any improvement in services.
Moneo@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I worry because like every streaming service they’ve slowly been reducing the amount they pay artists. How can they halve customer fees and not pay artists less?
ominouslemon@lemm.ee 8 months ago
My guess is that they’ve realized that nobody subscribed to the highest tier, so they’ve incorporated its features into the normal tier, hoping to make it up in volume (I.e. new people subscribing because it’s cheap and it offers more than Spotify). So perhaps they are going to be able to pay artists the same rates
Deadful@lemmy.world 8 months ago
As far as I can tell, I’m actually in the vast minority in that I use the service on a family plan and with my DJ gear. Streaming for DJs is being removed from family plans and it now requires me to pay for an individual plan + $9 a month in addition to what I’m already paying for the wife and kids, so I’m thinking about canning it.
Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
That’s a pretty good price, if YT music ever takes away my $8 a month early sign up pricing I’ll probably look at swapping over.
skyspydude1@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Just do it now. Give your money to a company that actually supports artists in a consumer friendly way.
Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
Problem is I have this fantasy of being 95 years old and proudly showing my great great grandchildren how I get YT Music/Premium for $8 instead of the $695 everyone else pays.
That imagined sense of superiority from getting a good deal is pretty much the only thing that keeps me going some days.
jetsetdorito@lemm.ee 8 months ago
I still regret giving up this plan
hedgehog@ttrpg.network 8 months ago
I signed up back when it was “Google Play Music” and was locked into that deal as well. I didn’t want to lose it, but I wanted to upgrade to a family plan. Customer support promised me that if I upgraded, my family plan price would continue to be honored for just as long as the individual plan price.
Spoiler: they lied.
I had my account using a unique-per-service card with a monthly cap and it started rejected their billing attempts when, about a year ago, they abruptly increased my plan price to nearly double what I had been paying.
I had already been using uBlock Origin and Tidal via Plex (even though I don’t actually use Plex, but when I signed up I hadn’t yet decided to use Jellyfin), since I despise the YT Music UI, so for me there wasn’t much of a change.
That said, if you like YT Music / YT Premium then by all means stick with it. The creators of the videos you watch get comped better when you watch them than when a free user does - that was the main reason I kept my subscription for as long as I did.
Pantherina@feddit.de 8 months ago
Who uses YT music when there are so many free clients?
ominouslemon@lemm.ee 8 months ago
I guess people who also like YT premium
ardi60@reddthat.com 8 months ago
Spotify vs Tidal which one is better?
ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
Is there a word for the opposite of enshitification?
mellowheat@suppo.fi 8 months ago
Awesome!
bitwolf@lemmy.one 8 months ago
Does this mean we’re stuck with MQA? Or can we still forcibly use FLAC. I was on the lower tier purely to avoid MQA.
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 8 months ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Tidal seems to have decided that there just aren’t enough people willing to pay upward of $20 per month for the highest-possible audio fidelity.
At a high level, it sounds like this new, much simpler subscription model will still include all the perks — high-res FLACs, Dolby Atmos mixes, etc.
Now Tidal is caving and throwing in its large catalog of high-res tracks without demanding extra money on top.
With this move, Tidal could be trying to head off an eventual rollout of the rumored “Supremium” Spotify plan and avoid potential subscriber losses.
Either way, it’s an attempt to remain competitive in the streaming music landscape — or at least to stay relevant.
Tidal laid off 10 percent of its staff in December amid other cuts at parent company Block.
The original article contains 428 words, the summary contains 130 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Thcdenton@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Tidal is still around? I’m impressed
resetbypeer@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Actually this is a good deal. Curation on tidal is good, meaning they have cool playlists handpicked by people. In the past when I used it it was with questionable MQA encoding, which had a lot of controversy. But 24/192khz flac, If you care about audio quality is a better offer than Qobuz.
Can’t go wrong for the price. But I think the main driver should be audio quality. Because FLAC files (esp 24/192khz) can be very data hungry, for those who use it mobile only. So you need to be careful with that. You can use lower sample rates and higher bitrate mp3 as well if my memory serves well. But that defeats a bit the purpose of what Tidal stands for
li10@feddit.uk 8 months ago
Not surprised, I was fed up with the cost so setup a new account with a Nigerian VPN, only a few pound per month with that method.
Might switch back to a UK account if they make the price more reasonable here.
PoliticallyIncorrect@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Maybe I would consider paying for tidal but as I am pirating YT music thought ReVanced I think I wouldn’t, so good luck anyway.
Furedadmins@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Spotify really beats everyone at cricket noises when responding to competitors.
Varyk@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Are they pretending everyone knows what that is?
PoliticallyIncorrect@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Anyone in the US can confirm if Tidal it’s free there?
knobbysideup@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
As a stand alone service I don’t think it is great, but feeding into Plex + Plexamp makes it awesome.
jacktherippah@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Still not available in my country. Sadge.
DarkNightoftheSoul@mander.xyz 8 months ago
This is just an ad read.
cosmic_slate@dmv.social 8 months ago
Some of y’all just like basking in depression and misery. Upset when prices go up, upset when a company lowers prices.
Tidal is generally very highly regarded among those who seeking a music streaming service that’s higher quality and pays out to artists.
Considering this was written by a reviewer, a person paid to give opinions…
DarkNightoftheSoul@mander.xyz 8 months ago
I’m not upset at prices changing, don’t put words in my mouth. I’m disappointed to see an ad here. Fuck this person’s paid opinions. I don’t care about tidal, I care about not being advertised to.
CptEnder@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I use Tidal and love it for HiFi playback. They’re kinda like Criterian for music and take the time to capture high bitrate archival masters. It’s pretty cool.
qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 8 months ago
Article specifically calls how they’re axing military and first responder discounts, how you still get upcharged for HiFi if you use their DJ Integration feature, and how they’re nixing the free tier.
The article is not an advertisement; it contains some good news for consumers and some bad news for consumers. The notable bit is the good news, hence it’s the headline. And it’s notable exactly because it’s good news — most everyone else is raising prices across the board.
ominouslemon@lemm.ee 8 months ago
You don’t know the Verge, perhaps
This is just a good news and they are reporting it as such
DarkNightoftheSoul@mander.xyz 8 months ago
I am too familiar with this gaudy website and its concept of journalism.
TheTetrapod@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I initially upvoted this comment, but since every other comment you’ve made is weird and combative, you’ve somehow made me stop agreeing with you. It’s an odd feeling.