Thought I'd revive this as I see there's another thread asking about it, and thought it'd be best to concentrate here.
So despite my reluctance about the $20 per month, I did sign up for this service and haven't cancelled yet. As I said before : if they did an ANNUAL subscription at a discounted rate, I think it would lock me - and many other music lover who want better sound. Mentioned this to a Tidal rep at CES though no immediate response.
Pros / Cons so far :
Pro's :
- Strong and wide selection
- The convenience - no file / IT management etc. This is really a BIG plus for me vs storing / managing my own files and IT gear (have a LOT of music / devices)
- Excellent sound quality noticeably better than Spotify / Pandora / etc.
- Strong value for the $ even @ $20 a month (compare vs buying even used cds / lps)
- Can work even on legacy systems : i.e. squeezebox. I even managed to get it to work on a NAS (WD MyCloud) as that has logitech media server and you can load ickstream, which in turn allows you to add Tidal, Deezer, Qobuz, etc). Not super simple to install, but if you can read & follow directions carefully, it will work and quite well
- More and more devices support it : i.e Sonos, Bluesound, Auralic Aries, Aurrender (beta, but perhaps the best integration I've seen so far).
Con's :
- I find the interface on the web browser and iPad / iPhone could be better (Aurrender GUI despite being beta is very good)
- Search sometimes doesn't find things it should. E.g. when I search "Nils Lofgren" under artist, nothing comes up, but I can find his "Acoustic Live" album. Which doesn't make sense. Found a similar problem & solution w/ Alison Krauss.
- I've read that not all songs stream @ cd quality - some stream at lower quality. There isn't as far as I can see some ready and easy visual indicator if the specific stream is cd quality or not
- No payment plans other than monthly
Despite these criticisms, this to me is still the future. If I didn't already have a very large music collection and was just starting (or had a small music collection), TIDAL or similar cd quality streaming service would be a no-brainer. Considering what things cost these days - even a crappy lossy album from iTunes / Amazon etc at $5-$10 minimum - $20 or so a month is a bargain. Yes, I suppose you could be a real cheapskate and buy used CD's, rip em, and then, ahem, sell / trade em in. But at least for me honestly as a music discovery tool, and on the flip side not getting stuck with a lame purchased album, as well as having it all on demand on multiple devices without having to rip / store / manage etc, Tidal and whatever else comparably that may come out, is really the way to go.
