Audio Video News

Tidal Launches MQA-Ready iOS App

SV Staff  |  Mar 11, 2019

The music streaming service TIDAL today launched an iOS app that supports the playback of high-resolution MQA-encoded music on the iPhone and other Apple devices

Master-quality titles are available for streaming and downloading through TIDAL Masters with a TIDAL HiFi subscription, which costs $25.99/month through the App Store or $19.99/month via tidal.com.

In addition to the new iOS app, hi-res Master Quality Authenticated (MQA)-encoded albums and tracks are available via TIDAL’s Android and TIDAL Desktop apps.

“From our ongoing work with engineers and artists, we know the importance creators place on delivering the original sound they created all the way to the music fan,” said MQA CEO Mike Jbara. “Through our global partnership with TIDAL, this becomes a reality wherever you’re enjoying your music.”

Lior Tibon, TIDAL COO, added: “Bringing music to life, just as the artist intended, is a core value of the Tidal platform and we couldn’t be more excited to finally bring master quality music to both major mobile operating systems.”

The TIDAL Masters catalog continues to grow and MQA has partnerships with all three major record labels as well as with Merlin, representing the independent label community.

MQA-enabled hardware is available from almost 50 brands, including Astell & Kern, NAD, Mark Levinson, Meridian, Onkyo, Pioneer, and Sony to name a few. For a complete list, broken out by category, click here.

TIDAL is available in 53 countries and has a library comprising more than 60 million songs and 250,000 videos.

For more information, visit tidal.com.

Related:

Nativ Announces Tidal/MQA Update for Hi-Res Player

Astell&Kern Adds MQA to Three Portable Players

COMMENTS
brenro's picture
Submitted by brenro on March 11, 2019 - 10:29am

No Apple device can decode MQA files.

Al Griffin's picture
Submitted by Al Griffin on March 11, 2019 - 11:15am
...up to 24/96, same as with the desktop app.
brenro's picture
Submitted by brenro on March 11, 2019 - 1:58pm

I guess halfway is better than nothing.

dmac6419's picture
Submitted by dmac6419 on March 12, 2019 - 5:26am

The software decodes the file,About to cancel Qobuz today soon as I post this,never could get the desktop app to function for 27 days,web apps file would pause,says they were hires but the 24/192 only registered as 16/44 which is fine with me,but if the desktop app had worked it would have told me if they were streaming 24/192,so imma plug the phone into the dac and stream Qobuz and see i9f it's 24/192.Oh did I say Tidal 10x better than Qobuz.

jfultz98's picture
Submitted by jfultz98 on March 11, 2019 - 4:06pm

I had read on the Qobuz app that my iPhone couldn't play HiRes FLAC without an external DAC. Is this true of the 24/96 coming out of the Tidal App?

Tarkina's picture
Submitted by Tarkina on September 7, 2023 - 1:05am

This is exciting news for iOS users and music enthusiasts. TIDAL has just rolled out an iOS app that allows you to enjoy high-resolution MQA-encoded music on your iPhone and other Apple devices. To access these master-quality titles, all you need is a TIDAL HiFi subscription, priced at $25.99/month on the App Store or a more affordable $19.99/month via tidal. For iOS app developers https://ein-des-ein.com/service/ios-development/ , this could be an opportunity to explore integrating MQA support into their own music apps, enhancing the audio experience for their users.

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