Here I was, sitting on my couch, scrolling through Facebook when I noticed this ugly blue icon staring at me, judging me from the bottom corner next to some Colplay post. Coldplay, the band, had changed their profile picture in support of a new streaming service.
This was where I first learned about the new music streaming service, Tidal, by Jay Z. At first, I was excited to see it. It seemed to me that all of the artists who tend to reject the idea of streaming their content had jumped on the bandwagon. Let’s be honest, I’m just missing Taylor Swift more than anything on my Spotify channel.
Not so fast.
First, let’s take a look at Tidal’s main selling points. How does it differentiate itself from the competition? Then, I’m going to show you how most of the backbone here is just a lot of hoopla.
- Higher Quality Content
- For Artists, By Artists (i.e. more money)
Higher Quality Content
As someone with a large vinyl record collection, I can honestly attest to the complaint about traditional streaming services. The online music world has lost a significant amount of quality over the last decade, and this has a lot to do with the compression of audio files for the purpose of reaching a wide network in as little space as possible.
Go find an old Rolling Stones record, throw that on a classic sound system, and what you’ll hear is something orgasmic to the ears. Compare that to a traditional streaming sound, and what you’ll hear sounds like it’s coming from the other side of a pillow.
Spotify has attempted to reverse this course, but at 320 Kbps, it hasn’t really achieved what most artists would consider “high quality” sound, only slightly better quality. Tidal is releasing a premium service (at a whopping $19.99/month, mind you) that offers 1,411 kbps. That sounds like a massive leap!
First of all, the quality of sound equipment that you listen from matters just as much, if not more, than how fast and big you can get your files. Basically, if you’re listening to your music on a pair of cheap apple ear pods, then high quality won’t make a difference, because your mass produced pair of plastic ear invaders can’t keep up with the high rate of sound coming through, nor amplify it enough to change the effect.
Honestly, if I want quality music, I’m going to throw on some old vinyl on my surround sound. If I’m streaming my music, I don’t care as much about quality. I’m just trying to listen to my theme song (Milkshake by Kelis) on my way around campus. With some crappy ear pods to boot.
Streaming is about convenience. Period.
I’ve compared Tidal to Spotify, and what I can honestly say is that this “premium quality” sound is only slightly noticeable when you’re directly comparing it to the alternatives. Otherwise, it’s not worth the $120 additional yearly investment. Comparing Tidal’s premium quality to vinyl, however, and I still get significantly better sound from a vinyl record. The mechanical system for amplifying music is still superior to Tidal’s supposed “hifi” quality.
My point is that hifi is mostly just a lot of hoopla. If you really care about quality, you’ll go find it on your own.
For Artists, By Artists (i.e. more money)
The biggest crutch in current streaming services for artists, such as Spotify, is a potential loss in revenue. Aside from compressed audio quality, artists are getting a much wider audience to hear their music, with a much lower percentage of income.
How is Tidal any different? I admit, I don’t completely understand how artists get paid differently from Tidal’s competitors, but what I do notice is a lot of big name artists jumping on board and a lot of silence from the little guys. That suggests to me that the money still won’t trickle down the way Jay Z says it will.
So what’s my reaction to that? Tidal just looks like the same old goop. Mumford and Sons came out today against the new service, along with a few others, and I suspect that this is only the beginning of a treacherous tidal wave for Jay Z and his big name supporters (excuse the pun).
The only difference is who’s wearing the suit.
I am not a staunch supporter of Spotify, or any of Tidal’s competitors. I even acknowledge the existence of what is probably going to be a grim future for these services, but you definitely won’t see me jumping on any Tidal bandwagons.
