this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
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Spotify vs Tidal - worth switching? (midwest.social)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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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?

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

After a few years on Spotify, I switched to Tidal.

Issues I had with Spotify are:

  1. You can't block a song, an artist or a band. Ridiculous really. For example, I dislike Kanye West and never want to hear his music, and blocking him on Tidal was easy.
  2. The Spotify shuffle algorithm is beyond terrible. If you have a 250 song playlist, you'll hear the same popular 50 songs and never the obscure ones. Sometimes even back-to-back. It's frustrating and they won't fix it. It seems to be their algorithm is designed to promote some artists or bands more than others.
  3. Spotify have promised higher quality audio for years and still haven't brought it out. With good headphones or speakers I can hear the difference that Tidal has.

I miss how well Spotify integrated with Google Home though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)
  1. You tap or click on don’t play this on either the the hamburger menu in the app or the right click menu on the computer.
  2. Shuffle doesn’t actually shuffle. It prioritizes songs based on listening habits, and licensing fees. They did a major update in 2022 to address the issues of it playing the same artist back to back, and I noticed a stark improvement, I actually can use shuffle now.
  3. The 320 kbps OGG, or AAC standards that Spotify supports are, outside of critical listening environments, indistinguishable from lossless audio. The only way you are going to hear a difference is with some very high end gear, and a very well trained ear. For reference Tidal themselves don’t stream with lossless audio. They stream with MQA, a very good, near lossless high quality compression algorithm, good enough to be called master quality authenticated, but still compressed, and the version Tidal uses is limited to the 16 bit version not the 24 bit version. Is Tidal Higher quality? Technically. Noticeable? Not without machines and measurement tools.

For reference I tune studios and PA systems for a living. I know how much peoples ears lie to them. Enjoy what you want to enjoy, because at the end of the day we listen to music for enjoyment. But the only technical win Tidal has is they pay artists more.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Maybe they've since added blocking artists. I know that I had several back and forth conversations with Spotify support on this and there wasn't any way to do it back then. I don't want to block a song, I want to block an artist/band completely.

I don't want shuffle to take into account their licensing fees, or which record labels they have promotions with. I want a random mix based on my favorite songs or chosen playlist. This is unacceptable and part of why I cancelled Spotify.

Tidal doesn't use mqa. The company behind mqa went under and they've since changed to FLAC.

Good headphones or great speakers and I do hear a difference. Not in every song, but in many. Spotify keeps promising better quality and they keep failing to deliver.

For reference, I have studio monitors that are calibrated and room corrected. Yes. There is a difference.