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?
I can’t speak much about the money making stuff, but I’ve read that most music artists make the majority of their income through touring and ticket sales for their live performances at venues, music festivals as well as attending other private events etc - and this goes back to even pre-Spotify days. So Spotify not paying artists well doesn’t really make a big difference. In fact, I’d argue that Spotify actually brings artists publicity, much like how mp3 sharing did back in the day, or the radio for that matter. I’ve discovered many artists via radio back in the day, much like how I discover them today via Spotify’s recommendations, and personally, I don’t see the issue.
Anyways, as a former audiophile, I’ve decided to choose convenience over perceived audio quality, so I use Spotify. Mind you, it’s not like I don’t perceive any difference at all, but the point is, for my day-to-day listening, it makes little difference - especially when most of my listening is in generally noisy environments like at work or during my commute. Also, Spotify streams at 320kbps Ogg Vorbis (on a good connection) - you’d need to have really good ears and gear to actually hear a difference between that and an uncompressed stream. Even then, it’s not like it makes a difference if you’re say just listening to pop and rock music or something.
It’s not like I’ve completely given up on lossless audio - I do use my audiophile gear when I’m in the mood and want to listen to certain tracks like say some of Pink Floyd atmospheric stuff like in A Momentary Lapse of Reason, or say John Williams, or classical music like Tchaikovsky or Vivaldi, but these are just a small fraction of my listening experience.
So if you are blessed with the ears and gear to actually make out the difference between 320kbps ogg vs FLAC/DSD, AND you listen to the kind of music where it really matters AND you care enough about that difference that it affects your enjoyment - then sure, go for Tidal. Otherwise, there’s no point.
After a few years on Spotify, I switched to Tidal.
Issues I had with Spotify are:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Re number 2, is that true even if you disable Automix?
I have a 3000+ saved songs list which is my standard “just play some music, give me the kitchen sink” choice. The only way to get Spotify off of a “shuffle-loop” is to turn off shuffle, skip a few songs, then turn shuffle back on.
It will still inevitably go back to the same 50 songs after a while though. I haven’t found a way to prevent this with any setting. I’ve not noticed it on any of my playlists with only a few hundred songs, but I don’t listen to those as long or often as my saved songs.
On mobile you can at least pick a (Spotify generated) genre filter which helps.
I just want Spotify to shuffle like old school iTunes. All the songs on this list… but randomized. A setting like iTunes to favor songs you’ve listened to fewer times would also be neat.
But we’re in the era of algorithms for everything, and apparently even Spotify premium isn’t enough to save you from sponsored and/or targeted manipulation Or their algorithm is just bugged and they don’t care.
I’ve actually noticed this with their AI DJ too. Listen to it long enough, it basically favors the same handful of artists and songs over and over again.
There’s an app I use, Virtual Shuffle, that forces Spotify to shuffle properly https://shuffle.virock.org
