Audio Video News

Tidal High Fidelity Music Streaming Service to Launch in U.S.

SV Staff  |  Sep 3, 2014

Service to Include HD Music Videos and Editorial Content from Music Journalists

WiMP HiFi, the Scandinavian music streaming service, today announced it will introduce Tidal, a high fidelity streaming service in the U.K. and U.S. later this fall with a monthly subscription of $19.99.

The ad-free service, which will be available for Android and iOS devices, network players, and PC/Macs, will offer music in the lossless FLAC format on all platforms except iOS—where ALAC (Apple Lossless) will be used—and support CD-quality 16-bit/44.1 kHz streaming. In situations where bandwidth is reduced, such as when streaming on the go, users will be able to stream at lower bit rates by choosing High (AAC 320kbps) or Standard (AAC+ 96) options. Subscribers will also be able to download tracks in CD quality.

Tidal plans to launch with an extensive music library of more than 25 million tracks and more than 75,000 high definition (HD) music videos. Music is hand-picked by Tidal editors, who will showcase the “best new albums and tracks” across all genres every day as well as provide regular content, including:

  • Album spotlights such as Album of the Week, Classical Album of the Month, and HiFi Album of the Month
  • Playlists intended to educate, entertain, and enrich the music experience
  • Close-ups on artists, labels, sub-genres, and historical eras
  • Weekly playlists that present highlights based on the week's news and top recommended tracks
  • Weekly artist interviews, magazine features, and daily magazine articles from experienced music journalists
"Initially, streaming was all about access to everything, everywhere, which many services now provide,” said CEO Andy Chen. “Tidal is not just another one of those providers. From the start, we knew that music streaming is not just about millions of tracks or thousands of playlists. Instead, it is about the ultimate music experience that makes you want to stop and listen. Rather than remaining in the background to some other activity, music deserves to take centre stage with quality at its heart."

COMMENTS
WFO-to-the-end's picture
Submitted by WFO-to-the-end on September 4, 2014 - 5:08pm

what do you get for the extra 10 bucks over spotify?

DefTechFan's picture
Submitted by DefTechFan on September 9, 2014 - 12:36pm

What you get over Spotify is lossless formats which are much better than the maximum 320 kbps you get now. I am sick of keeping up with high resolution files, physical media, etc. Hopefully this service will catch on so most of us can rid ourselves of having to download music files and keep up with them on hard drives or the cloud.

I currently subscribe to Beats Music for $10/month (same as Spotify) and would most certainly pay more to stream lossless audio.

X