Tidal vs. Spotify

Seriously Cymbop, you never sit down to listen and think to yourself, "I'd like to revisit a particular time period and discover songs I may have missed"? Or maybe hear songs from only a particular era, but want them randomly chosen because you're mentally focused on other tasks and just want to be surprised? That has never happened to you?

I do that all the time. Other people must, or you wouldn't have Time/Life doing all those infomercials selling bundles of 800 CDs filled with 46,000 songs from the '60s/70s/etc. I think there's a lot of interest in playlists that capture particular time periods in music history.

Gator: totally. I'll use Pandora when I want background music that I don't have to select.

Just wanted to point out how spoiled and complain-y we are (me included) when we just can't be bothered to pick out an album to play, after we've been provided access to nearly all the music that's ever been digitized.

BcGator - my results may be different as I am logged on. It may learn my tastes, not sure yet. It takes me ten minutes tops about once a week to search and add new multi-hour playlists and albums. Its pretty easy and the music is uncompressd, whch does blow spotify, pandora and what ever other mp3 service is available.

Following off BCGator, I think as a platform Spotify is just more competent at this time. As I've said previously, Tidal very clearly sounds better. I only get to listen off my good rig on occasion, but I'm always listening in my car, off my deepblue2 in the kitchen, off my laptop while I'm traveling, and off my iphone on the go.

My hope would be that Tidal either forces Spotify to go lossless, or Tidal gets the level of robustness/connectivity that Spotify currently has. If I had the money, I'd have Tidal for reference, Spotify for mobility, and Pandora for radio. But paying for premium service for 3 services just seems a little silly.

I like listening to streaming music because it is easy and I love the variety. I can change my mind every two minutes and quickly find different music to listen to. Of course, listening to music stored on my hard drive offers the very best quality. However, the flexibility and sound quality of Tidal is a big listening plus for me.

I agree with the above posts that Spotify gives you more music selections and that Tidal gives you much better sound quality (uncompressed). Tidal music selections are improving but additional albums need to be added. There is a very slight delay when starting music on Tidal and another slight delay from song to song. This is not a problem for me since the sound quality is very good.

Tidal also offers various play lists you can select or you select your own album. Another advantage with Tidal is that you can select an album and then page down to see additional albums by that artist. As I stated above, Tidal Hi-Fi streaming is ONLY available on the Chrome browser.

Okay. I sometimes listen to Pandora for background music or to find out if I like a specific album or type of music.

You need to decide if the Tidal $20 per month charge is worth it. I feel the Tidal sound quality is well worth the $20. I suggest you give Tidal a try for one month and then decide.