This is a pretty big assumption. Most of the music I listen to is from the vinyl era and the only way to get a high resolution digital master is to make a new one. It's not as simple as "upload the other file."
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Tidal Releases Apple Watch App With Offline Playback and More
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100% true. What I'm concerned about is financial incentive to encourage the remastering of albums that don't have a high resolution master already, which I suspect based off Tidal's catalog (as this is the only data point I have available to me) is a lot of them.
I guess it's wrong of me to assume that Tidal's stream of new classic MASTER recordings is paid for in part by the extra $10/month I pay to access them, but this stream of new masters is a value I get from the service. Having included-in-the-price access to fewer high resolution versions of the music I like to listen to sounds like a negative outcome compared to paying for more of them.
I didn't like Apple Music when it was released. I found the in-app marketing of the service intrusive and it discouraged me from listening to the songs I pay to store in Match (rare cuts, bootlegs and vinyl rips). I'll have to give it another go once high def is available.
Apple Digital Masters appears to mandate 24-bit depth, but not 192 kHz resolution. From their Apple Digital Masters whitepaper:
Which explains why Apple seems confident in offering over 20 million songs in Lossless Audio format at launch, eventually the entire 75 million+ songs.
But Apple hasn't disclosed how many would be Hi-Res Lossless.
Wait I’m confused, the article says offline listening on the Apple Watch, meaning it downloads the tracks directly on the watch. Anyway, that was a joke lol
They're a bit late on this release. This is why competition is important. Look at how Amazon Music Unlimited made HD free at the same time Apple announced free Lossless. These companies sit on their ass until they're threatened.
That is what makes Apple Music the best choice for Hi-Res.Tidal is not truly lossless and Amazon sounds like they remaster from old cassettes.
AppleDigitalMasters_WhitePaperPDF
Best Practices for Apple Digital Masters
Our latest high-resolution encoding process ensures that your music is transparently and faithfully distributed in the way you intended it to be heard. However, before you submit songs to Apple for encoding, there are some best practices you can follow to ensure that your audio is optimized for Apple Music or the iTunes store.
Use High-Resolution Sources
To take best advantage of our latest encoders, use only 24-bit sources and send us the highest-resolution master file possible, appropriate to the medium and the project. Don’t upsample files to a higher resolution than their original format. Upsampling won’t recover or add information to an audio file. Similarly, don’t “bit-pad” or recapture 16-bit files in 24-bit.
Provide High-Resolution Masters
Some mastering engineers prefer to control the SRC process by sending already converted files, however we ask that you deliver the highest native sample rate available. As technology advances and bandwidth, storage, battery life, and processor power increase, keeping the highest-resolution masters available in our systems allows for full advantage of future improvements to your or your client’s music.
Also, though it may not be apparent because there may not always be a physical, tangible master created in LP or CD format, the Apple Music and iTunes catalog forms an important part of the world’s historical and cultural record. These masters matter.
You are not mistaken, no. They have an impressive chunk of back catalog in Hi-Res masters, as well as new. The AAC files of the Apple Digital masters albums come directly from these hi-res masters, and also the encoding process have been improved to preserve as much dynamic range as possible and reduce the artifacts of these files taking into account the particularities of the lossy AAC format, as well as Apple own proprietary encoder.
don't tell me you guys actually plan on downloading lossless or mqa files to your apple watch, whether it's through spotify, apple music, or tidal.
1) there is a 99% chance that you can't perceive the difference and if you do, it's most likely placebo or because you connected your apple watch with a wireless dac which is connected to an amp which is connected to a $1000 audiophile headset
2) high bit rates will quickly wear down your battery life.
just stick to 256kbps AAC files, please.
1) there is a 99% chance that you can't perceive the difference and if you do, it's most likely placebo or because you connected your apple watch with a wireless dac which is connected to an amp which is connected to a $1000 audiophile headset
2) high bit rates will quickly wear down your battery life.
just stick to 256kbps AAC files, please.
Correct. Apple announced that in June, "only 20.000 songs of the entire catalogue will be available in lossless, with the 100% in lossless by the end of the year". They have the masters already, so I think this is due to the time that will take to encode the ALAC files from this masters in several samplerates.
Same. Apple Music suggestions and recommendations is also far better IMO than tidal.
that said, I use tidal more as I prefer how their tracks sound over Apple Music. To my ears Apple Music is overly warm, Tidal a bit more neutral and clearer. Keen to hear apples lossless offering tho!
I have been using TIDAL since 2014 and I’m so here for this announcement. Been waiting since 2017 when I got the series 3 AW.
That being said, here are some of my thoughts:
I’m hoping they drop their price to $9.99 like everyone else. I currently pay $30/month for the family plan and everyone seems to enjoy it more than the other streaming services.
I don’t think they should have gone with MQA given that its not only a proprietary format, but it is also frowned upon by the audiophile community for being technically lossy. With that said, I definitely don’t think anyone can here the difference after 24/48 quality on a pair of headphone no matter how good the drivers. You may be able to tell with a dedicated speaker setup but it’s mostly overkill for actually listening purposes. Tracks should ALWAYS be available in the highest quality though.
I will say that having used all streaming services at one point or another, I would honestly stick with TIDAL. It just feels like an overall high quality experience in regards to the UI and how things are arranged. Apple Music has always been very confusing to me (a lot of hidden options with force touch) and Spotify just doesn’t impress on any level. TIDAL is leaps and bounds better now at recommendation and music discovery than even 3 years ago.
The exclusives are unmatched. Beyoncé alone keeps me subscribed just in case (jk).
I’m glad to see everyone offering Hi-Fi now because it’s loooonnnggg overdue.
We all deserve a better music experience in 2021. NO one should be satisfied listening to music that’s been compressed to a lossy format: There’s no need for us to be listening to trash in 2021. Music compression was only designed to save space and bandwidth but neither one is really an issue anymore.
I respect people that say they don’t hear a difference but that does not mean that we should be satisfied with that status quo just because streaming services say <=320kbps is good enough.
We shall see what all this means for our Norwegian streaming service. I don’t want it to die though.
That being said, here are some of my thoughts:
I’m hoping they drop their price to $9.99 like everyone else. I currently pay $30/month for the family plan and everyone seems to enjoy it more than the other streaming services.
I don’t think they should have gone with MQA given that its not only a proprietary format, but it is also frowned upon by the audiophile community for being technically lossy. With that said, I definitely don’t think anyone can here the difference after 24/48 quality on a pair of headphone no matter how good the drivers. You may be able to tell with a dedicated speaker setup but it’s mostly overkill for actually listening purposes. Tracks should ALWAYS be available in the highest quality though.
I will say that having used all streaming services at one point or another, I would honestly stick with TIDAL. It just feels like an overall high quality experience in regards to the UI and how things are arranged. Apple Music has always been very confusing to me (a lot of hidden options with force touch) and Spotify just doesn’t impress on any level. TIDAL is leaps and bounds better now at recommendation and music discovery than even 3 years ago.
The exclusives are unmatched. Beyoncé alone keeps me subscribed just in case (jk).
I’m glad to see everyone offering Hi-Fi now because it’s loooonnnggg overdue.
We all deserve a better music experience in 2021. NO one should be satisfied listening to music that’s been compressed to a lossy format: There’s no need for us to be listening to trash in 2021. Music compression was only designed to save space and bandwidth but neither one is really an issue anymore.
I respect people that say they don’t hear a difference but that does not mean that we should be satisfied with that status quo just because streaming services say <=320kbps is good enough.
We shall see what all this means for our Norwegian streaming service. I don’t want it to die though.
I can sync 56 various levels of lossless tracks to my 16GB Apple Watch series 4, so tidal prolly can store maybe a hundred.
Very interesting.
Will the fact of their (Apple´s) files being lossless change the sound signature? (from overly warm to neutral). In other words... is the lossy compression responsible for the excesive warmness?.
Heres that whitepaper if anyone was interested!
Interesting. Source?
The watch streaming quality is going to be poor, just 96 kbps.
Tidal now also offers offline listening on the Apple Watch
The latest music streaming service to offer support.
www.theverge.com
Tried listening to some downloaded tracks for a few minutes and had to stop as it was so bad.
He sold it a few weeks before the Apple announcement, for ~5x what he paid for it.
Don't remember ever having a tidal crash on any of my devices (iMac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Receiver, Blu-Ray player).
Maybe, maybe not. Tidal is not just the streaming service, it has licensing deals with studios and and recording artists. Square has a lot of hip hop influencers who promote their product which could be tied in to Tidal.
" If Square leverages the power of Cash App and it’s new found backdoor into the music industry, it could create one of the biggest record companies and music streaming platforms at the same time."
What Square’s $302 Million TIDAL Acquisition Means For Its Music Industry Ambitions
Jay Z no longer has “99 Problems” since TIDAL’s $350 million Square acquisition finally closed. The financial services platform acquired 80% ownership in TIDAL, along with licensing deals with major record labels and recording artists who are involved with the company.
www.forbes.com
Responding to "what's so good about it".
I prefer its' interface to Apple Music. Less cluttered, more information, less distracting graphics, but that is a personal choice. The big thing that Tidal offers, and Apple Music does not, is integration. Sound Uniteds' HEOS app for Denon and Marantz include Tidal, but not Apple Music. Roon allows you to integrate your personal library with Tidal making one seamless music interface. A lot of music devices, such as receivers, include a Tidal app.
Tidal also pays artists at a higher rate than any other streaming service.
yes
Not much point in downloading lossless to your watch as that will all be lost due to bluetooth limitations.
I downloaded 25 MQA masters to my watch and the total Tidal useage (including the app) was 283 MB, about 11 MB per track.
There is, I think, an 8 GB limit for Apple Music downloads. Assuming this same 8 GB limit for the app that would mean you could download ~800 tracks. Took a long time to download those 25 tracks. 800 would take hours.