Thoughts on Tidal

31 May 2024

I have been on the free trial of music streaming service Tidal. Here are my thoughts so far as a usual Spotify user:

• This app feels like Spotify if the designers actually cared about music. No audiobooks, no podcast junk, just pure music and it's glorious.
• The Mac app is solid. Apple Music is stuck in its iTunes roots and Spotify is a poor use of screen space.
• The Tidal credits view is awesome. I wish Spotify showed credits more prominently instead of keeping it in a pop-up window.
• Tidal's algorithmic mixes are quite good, a good variety of stuff I'm not as familiar with rather than Spotify's mixes which are just the same few songs on repeat
• I like having a shuffle button that actually shuffles the music instead of whatever Spotify's does
• Can't say I've watched any music videos on Tidal, but I'd much rather have this music-related content than podcasts
• Tidal music quality is good, about the same as Apple Music from what I can tell. Where in the world is Spotify Hi-Fi?
• Spotify search is still superior in surfacing the stuff I'm looking for. Tidal search on the desktop also seems a bit broken, sometimes I need to click back into the search field and hit Enter for it to trigger the search.

Overall, I've enjoyed checking out Tidal and seeing what other streaming services have to offer. While I have good things to say about it, I'll go back to Spotify as I'm on a family plan and likely can't convince my family to move to another service.