Tidal, a lossless quality streaming service

HollowAxis

http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/2288392

joneve

If Spotify premium wasn't "included" in my mobile phone contract, I would consider the switch but would need to check the library first. 

The Spotify quality for lsitening at work through my Jambox (my main usage) or in my car - Spotify does the trick. There are a few albums I wish it had though! 

HollowAxis

Yeah Spotify worked perfectly fine for me. 

And I have unlimited data on my mobile contract. So I've no worries there.

The quality jump on mobile isn't huge obviously but where I listen at home with an excellent DAC/Speakers/Headphones and in a well treated room ... it's a justifiable quality jump, I can hear it. 

I had a huge FLAC library anyway and pretty much all of it is in Tidal.

I asked their support yesterday and they said they are adding a form for subscribers to request music to be included. 

Apparently this worked well in Scandinavia where this launched first as a thing called WiMP. 

So if they pay attention to those requests it will be superb. 

joneve

Yea, thought I'd do the 7 day trial. 

Looks ok. The library, from what I can tell is pretty much identical to Spotify, so no real difference there. 

As suspected, the sound quality difference isn't registering through my jambox, so I doubt I'll keep it, purely because of the cost. But I like the idea of being able to request music. 

chrispy108

Looks alright, but I get Spotify for a fiver as a student at the moment, and tbh not sure I (or most people) can tell the difference between Spotify Extreme (320kbps Oggs) and this.

HollowAxis

Yeah most people won't be able to.

But if you have the gear you can.

Mobile I listen through Etymotic ER-4 in ears.

In the studio it's Beyerdynamic DT-880 Pros or Sennheiser HD280s. 

Speakers are Neumann KH310A. 

DAC is a Lynx Hilo.

With the right gear the differences are obvious. 

I was reading that in Scandinavia the WiMP service has 580 000 normal users with only 17 000 paying for the lossless service.

This will probably be the same sort of ratio I'm guessing.

joneve

WTF is spotify extreme?! 

joneve

FFS! Just realised I've been using "normal" quality! My poor ears!  

HollowAxis

Hahahaha!

At least you got something useful from this thread!

No matter what you are listening through you'll hear a difference between 320kbps and the lower qualities.

Your ears will be much happier now!

ToneControl

do they pay the artists properly? Spotify doesn't

HollowAxis

ToneControl said:

do they pay the artists properly? Spotify doesn't

Depends what you mean by 'properly' and if you're stuck in the old mode way of thinking. 

But that's another topic.

Apparently they do this.

“TIDAL pays out approximately 75% of our revenues to labels and rights holders organization, who in turn distribute the money to artists, songwriters, composers etc. Since our service is double the price of regular market standard streaming services, payouts per user will also be double.”

ToneControl

I have never heard any artist say that Spotify pay even 10% of what anyone would consider a fair amount, on Spotify artists earn $0.007 per stream, so 1000 plays gets you less than £5. Not a very fair return on effort and talent I believe.

I have a friend who gets something like £20 a year from them. Buskers can earn that by selling 2 CDs in the street.

10 million plays would get you £5000

I don't think that challenging that stupidly low figure is an outdated perspective. Do you have any more info on how much TIDAL pay per play?

joneve

Not sure of the truth of this:

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/04/01/spotify-pay-musicians-dollar-per-play

joneve

And also this;

http://www.spotifyartists.com/spotify-explained/

ToneControl

April 1st??

joneve said:

Not sure of the truth of this:

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/04/01/spotify-pay-musicians-dollar-per-play

ToneControl

joneve said:

And also this;

http://www.spotifyartists.com/spotify-explained/

it says

Recently, these variables have led to an average “per stream” payout to rights holders of between $0.006 and $0.0084. This combines activity across our tiers of service. The effective average “per stream” payout generated by our Premium subscribers is considerably higher.

it does go on to explain how they work, and they give streams free to people who would otherwise pirate stuff.

Currently, though, Pro musicians I know complain about getting so little paid back that it is just a shop window to give away their stuff

There are a few members of this forum who feel this way

fwiw, I have a Spotify sub. Saves me buying as many CDs that I dislike. I rather hope that my sub money goes to the artists. Maybe the 0.007 that goes to artists is mostly for the free users?

joneve

ToneControl said:

April 1st??

joneve said:

Not sure of the truth of this:

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/04/01/spotify-pay-musicians-dollar-per-play

Haha. Good shout! I hadn't had a coffee before I posted the link! 

I agree with you though. I hope they get more than 0.007p from those that subscribe. I just don't have the disposable income to buy all the albums I would like to at least try out. Previously I'd pirate them to see if I like them and then get round to buying the ones I like and kept "as and when" I could afford it (which sometimes meant never). Since Spotify came around I've always given my subscription money to them as a better alternative.

If I could afford £7.99 for every new release I wanted, then I'd go down that route - there's usually 4 or 5 new albums a month that I listen to so that would be around £40 a month. at the minute it's costing me £10 (or nothing actually, as Spotify premium is included in my phone contract) so it's a considerable difference in cost. 

ToneControl

https://musicindustryblog.wordpress.com/category/artists/

HollowAxis

http://www.spotifyartists.com/2-billion-and-counting/