Digital never sounded so good
Tidal Hi-Fi is the streaming service for the true audiophile
With the exception of the heartwarming revival of vinyl records, the future of music is digital. There are more than a few of options for digital music in your home, on your phone or tablet. Apple Music and Spotify dominate the industry but so much of digital music we listen to sounds, well, just too digital.
Tidal is a small company by comparison to the giants but with its strong artist shareholder influence, they are doing something cleverly different and I was keen to try what’s been called the Rolls-Royce of digital music.
There’s a standard version of Tidal but I opted for the ‘Hi-Fi’ subscription to try the premium features. It’s a simple process to get the app up and running after downloading it from the App store for either iOS or Android. The app is minimal but functional and easy to navigate.
Searching for music is simple but Tidal make discovery – that is finding new music – easy for you. Clicking on playlists reveals Tidal’s selection of what they think you might like. There are playlists for relaxing, parties, dinner and all manner of moods or activities. These are playlists of the best or most appropriate music in that category, and they’re good. As well as the Tidalcreated playlists, there are exclusive guest playlists created by artists themselves.
The My Music section of Tidal also works well and I created my own playlists on my laptop, which almost instantly showed up on my iPhone. I opted for Offline Mode, so I could listen to that playlist without using data while out walking. This mode is also ideal for stocking up before travelling. There are 40million tracks in the catalogue and around 130,000 HD videos. I’ve searched for acts I thought might be obscure, but they’re all there including Irish traditional music. As well as music and videos Tidal have broadened their appeal with interviews and exclusive shows in magazine style formats. Earlier this month, Tidal announced they would be making a feature called Masters available which is music reproduced like it sounded in the studio when it was recorded. This super high-quality format called MQA, puts Tidal ahead of the competition. Not all of the music on Tidal is in this format, but there’s plenty there to get started with. And if you own digital hifi devices like Sonos or Ixion Maestro, Tidal is integrated into those devices and you can access the catalogue from their controls. Tidal isn’t a cheap monthly subscription but as a music fan, I mostly care about how it sounds. With a good home hi-fi or headphones coupled with their new Masters feature Tidal leaves other music services in the shade.