Tide: Test | Fee | Overview of supported devices

No extra music services

Tides play a special role in the highly competitive music streaming market. Music and artists are the focus of music services, and there are no audiobooks or podcasts not related to the topic. However, very few providers can keep up with ultra-high-resolution music. In the test, we clarified whether this is enough in the game.

table of Contents

1. Prices and packages
   

2. Sound quality
   

3. Platform support
   

4. Music selection and exclusive content
   

   1. Music video
      

   2. Audiobooks
      

   3. radio station
      

   4. Podcasts and exclusive content
      

5. Operation and other functions
   

   1. Offline mode
      

   2. Equalizer
      

6. Share family subscriptions with friends
   

7. Artist tide
   

8. Advantages compared to other music services
   

9. in conclusion
   

Tides are related to music and the people who make it. Music streaming services not only rely on a large music catalog containing more than 60 million songs and 250,000 music videos, but also rely on various exclusive content, pre-release and live events, performances, and meeting and greetings with artists. CD quality provides a lot of content, and some records even have a higher master tape quality. So if you are looking for a music service, and the audio books and podcasts of that music service are not related to the topic, then Tidal is obviously wrong.

Why is Tidal so focused on music? If you look at the development of music services, it will be clear soon. Tidal was founded in 2014 by the Norwegian Swedish company Aspiro. Just a year later, the rapper Jay-Z took over Aspiro, including Tidal. He also brought 19 world-renowned musicians who participated in music services. They are all shareholders of Tidal.

These stars are behind the tides

Therefore, it is clear why music is the focus of the tides. This service is provided by artists and is obviously aimed at die-hard music fans who want to get closer to their favorite artists. Does this really differentiate the service from the competition between Spotify and Deezer, both of which have a wider range of competition?

Important information overview

• Over 60 million songs
• Over 250,000 music videos
• Live concerts and festivals
• Various internal productions and video and audio formats
• Exclusive pre-release
• Uncompressed master quality is available on request

Prices and packages

Tide offers three different streaming media tariffs. "Tidal Channel" is a free version. Here, you can only access the live video channel of the service. You can use Tidal Premium to fully access this offer. The highest audio quality in the surcharge is 320 kb per second, which is sufficient for high-quality music systems or headphones.

If you are looking for the best possible sound quality, Tidal HiFi rates should be used. The monthly fee is 19.99 euros, students pay 9.99 euros and families pay 29.99 euros. Tidal HiFi provides different resolutions. Most songs and albums are provided in 16-bit and 44.1 kHz uncompressed FLAC format.

Tidal also offers so-called "main" songs. Their resolution is again higher, usually 24-bit 96 Hz. Tidal HiFi subscribers can also access songs and albums with 360-degree surround sound. However, the use of this offer requires correspondingly compatible speakers or headphones. You can try all tariffs for 30 days for free. In addition, Tidal often offers extended trial periods, during which new customers can try the service for three months for free.

prompt: You can also use your Apple ID to use your phone bill on your iPhone or iPad to withdraw your tidal subscription. However, we recommend that you book the service through the website. Due to the commission paid by Tidal to Apple, the services on mobile devices are much more expensive. The price of premium tariffs is about 9.99 euros (instead of 9.99 euros), and the high-fidelity tariff is even 26.99 euros (instead of 19.99 euros) -Great premium.

In Vodafone and Telekom, Tidal is one of the partners of "Music Pass" and "StreamOn" respectively. If you use these options, the use of tides will not count towards your mobile data volume. This is not the case with other providers, it will quickly affect your surfing volume, especially given the high stream quality of Tidal HiFi.

Sound quality

Tidal's flagship is high sound quality. However, before deciding the HiFi subscription mode at twice the price and higher data rate, you should consider whether the playback device meets the requirements. For cheap headphones or PC speakers, the compressed version is sufficient.

On high-quality speakers or headphones, the difference between lossless FLAC and compressed AAC format is very obvious. Please note that your playback device must support uncompressed FLAC format playback. Ideally, you use the HiFi trial version to subscribe, and then compare the quality level, you can adjust it at any time using the application settings.

Data consumption of average long title

When looking at the average amount of data, it will quickly become clear that if your own mobile phone tariff does not contain a large amount of data, then lossless streaming on the go is not a good idea. Therefore, it is best to use WiFi to stream or download content. If you want to listen to high-resolution music on the go, also make sure to free up a lot of space on your device because albums or large playlists require a lot of storage space.

• Tidal premium: about 10 megabytes (high, AAC 320 KBit / s)
• Tidal premium: about 2.9 megabytes (normal, AAC + 96 kbps)
• Tidal HiFi: about 40 megabytes (lossless FLAC, 1,411 KBit / s)
• Tide Master: about 90 megabytes (3,000 kbit / s)

Platform support

Tidal provides gratifying broad platform support and can be used on various devices. The music service works with multiple manufacturers of music systems and speakers. There are separate applications for Windows, Mac computers and laptops, and Tidal can be used on other systems (such as Linux computers) through a web player. On mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets, you can also use music streaming services through the app.

Tides can also run on smart watches. Support Samsung's Tizen watches and smart watches with WearOS and Apple Watch. Only control via voice assistant is restricted. Here, Tidal is currently only used with Amazon Alexa, unfortunately other digital assistants are left behind.

Music selection and exclusive content

The selection of music tracks is very rich, with more than 60 million songs. There are representatives of all well-known musicians on the platform, especially at the hip-hop festival, Tidal can score with many even little-known artists. For example, we found the album "Son Rize Vol 1" released after the murder of rapper Kadafi, which was not provided by many other streaming services. However, there are gaps in tides. For example, Square One, a Munich rap crew established in the late 1990s, could not be found, nor could the prints defined by the American crew.

Overall, the quotes are large, and results can be found in almost every search. A large part of the offer is uncompressed CD quality, with more than 170,000 titles and even higher quality. One advantage of Tide is the exclusive pre-release. Some albums, such as Jay-Z or Beyoncé albums, were first released on Tidal until some time later on other services. However, what the service lacks is the possibility to integrate your own songs into the media library to bridge the gap. Other platforms such as Deezer or Apple Music work better.

Music video

In addition to a wide variety of music, Tidal also provides a large number of music videos. There are currently over 250,000 available. Here, the service also strives to classify the largest possible selection to provide an overview. You can find newly released content under "New Music Videos", as well as "New Video Playlists", "Video Highlights" by some artists, "Classic", etc.

Audiobooks

You will not find audio books or radio dramas on Tidal. The streaming service is completely focused on music. There is language content, but it is all about music. If you are looking for a wider range of music services, it is recommended to use Spotify or Deezer.

radio station

Like other music services, Tidal also provides artist-based radio stations, that is, playlists with the best songs of the artist. You can also start a title-based radio station based on a song to provide you with similar songs. Even if the title that appears at some point may not be suitable for our taste, this test will work properly in the test. However, you cannot use regular local radio stations on Tidal.

Podcasts and exclusive content

Tidal provides a large number of audio and video podcasts related to music. In addition, there are some self-edited video series with different themes, such as documentaries about artists, interviews or performances, in which musicians think about God and the world through drinking. The selection range is very large and can provide the right content for each taste. In addition, you can watch live performances of various artists and attend concerts in Tidal. Many "behind-the-scenes" videos have improved the quotation, where you can watch the video shooting and the behind-the-scenes of Co ..

The majors we have never seen on any other music service are so-called visual albums. Artists create videos for their albums and then virtually cut them into music movies. There are currently seven visual albums, including Beyonce ’s 65-minute album "Lemonade".

Operation and other functions

Visually, Tidal uses the same concepts as other services in its user interface. The content is divided into different categories for easy overview. The first is the main areas "Home", "Video", "Discovery" and "My Music". Then there are many sub-items in each category. As with other services, in the "Home" section, you will also find personalized music recommendations based on added favorite artists, recently played albums, etc. The chart is also located here, as well as master-quality albums, emerging singers (rising like a tide) or playlists based on mood—for example, exercise.

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The video area contains the mentioned music videos, interviews and documentaries. Under "Discovery," you can access podcasts edited by the music editing team, various music genres, or numerous playlists. You will also find "Tidal X" here. Tidal X wants to bring music lovers closer to their favorite artists. In addition to concerts, you can also find the entire festival here. In addition, tidal members are always provided with exclusive concert tickets. Overall, the application is easy to use, and after a short familiarization, you can find your way out. The application provides first-time help in the form of short coverage.

You can assign a heart shape in the song list to mark your favorites. The corresponding song, album or playlist is in its own archive. On the details page of a single artist, you can directly access the album catalog, available playlists, videos, navigate to similar artists, and inform you of the artist's life and work through the stored biography. Unfortunately, the music service lacks lyrics. Given the high interest in music and artists, this is incomprehensible.

Offline mode

Like other platforms, Tidal provides an offline mode that can be used without an Internet connection, but only for mobile applications, not for desktop computers. However, downloading songs is a bit troublesome. Unfortunately, this cannot be done directly on the playback screen, but must be done on the corresponding album page or in your own media library. Unnecessary steps.

Equalizer

It is incomprehensible to many users: you will not find an equalizer on Tidal. How could this be the possible reason for the decision again among the shareholders of artist Tidal. They may want to deliver the songs and albums provided to listeners in exactly the same way as when they were mixed, without any distortion. This is exactly what is often discussed more frequently in social networks. Some users do not want to use the equalizer to enjoy the original sound. But to criticize, because many headphones or speakers are distorted at the factory, for example, some models have particularly heavy bass. Subsequent adjustment of the sound will benefit the sound image.

Many music systems have built-in equalizers, and you can of course use them for tides. In addition, some headset manufacturers provide their own applications that include an equalizer. If you do not have this option, the only option left is to use the application. For Android, there are about three euros of applications "RE Equalizer 10-Band", which can also be used with Tidal. It looks a little different from Apple devices. Unfortunately, there is no application solution here, so you must not have an equalizer.

Share family subscriptions with friends

Only Tidal family tariffs for up to five participants can be streamed in parallel. Like other services, in fact, it is often used not only for families, but also for friends and acquaintances. Tide did not explicitly address this issue with its own general terms of use (AGB). However, the service writes according to its terms:

"You agree not to perform any of the following activities on the service: … at any time use other users' accounts, usernames or passwords, or disclose your password to third parties or allow third parties to access your account."

This must be the case when sharing, so it will violate the terms of use. It is not known whether Tide is actively taking action to stop the abuse of family engagements.

Artist tide

Do you make music yourself and want to publish it on Tidal? Then, you must bypass one of the sales partners. Tidal is currently working with Indigoboom, Record Union, DistroKid, and Tunecore, through which you can also provide works in other services. However, the provider can pay for this. Prices vary widely. The Recording Union is currently the cheapest album for singles at $ 7, EP at $ 10, and $ 13 (about 12 euros)).

As the British "Guardian" reported in October 2019, Tidal musicians received $ 0.0125 per stream. This puts the service ahead of Apple Music and Spotify, but lags behind Napster, where artists earn $ 0.019.

Advantages compared to other music services

What makes Tidal different from other music streaming services? We summarize the unique selling points of music services below.

• Various live concerts, festivals and performances.
• From podcasts to shows, many exclusive content
• Exclusive pre-release of certain albums
• Visual album
• High-quality songs and albums with extremely high resolution