Spotify vs. Tidal
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The wide variety of streaming music services makes us wonder which of them is the most worth paying for. Spotify is one of the undisputed kings of the sector. Very few shadow him. Especially if we take into account its extensive catalog with more than 30 million songs,or its clean and simple interface. The truth is that there is one that, we can say, is capable of rivaling his height, or even surpassing him on several points as we will see below. This is Tidal.
This service is currently available on Vodafone completely free with the Red M and Red L rates. Its key point, and what differentiates it enormously from Spotify, is that it offers music up to the same quality that we have in the CDs. That is, at 44.1 kHz, 16-bit and 1,411 kbps bitrate,about four times that of Spotify. If you are undecided and want to know whether to opt for Tidal or Spotify better, be sure to keep reading. We compare these two streaming music services detail by detail.
Design
If we download the Spotify and Tidal applications we will immediately see that they are very similar at the design level. It seems that Tidal is a clone of its rival. The appearance of both is very clean and invites you to start looking for music of all kinds right away. Both have tabs to browse, search, or library (my music in the case of Tidal).What the latter lacks is a Radio tab. Here Spotify plays its cards very well, with different personalized lists with the music related to what we listen to. Or different recommended stations with the artists that we most often play on the service. There are also stations by genre: blues, classical, country, funk…
We do find on Tidal, within Explore, suggested artists or albums based on our tastes. The truth is that in this section it is somewhat poorer than its rival,which is much faster and more intelligent in this sense. Likewise, both on Spotify and on Tidal you can find music by genre or depending on our mood. Of course, Spotify shows it something more visual with music lists created for different moments. Here you can also locate news or videos.
It seems that Tidal gives more priority in genres and moods to recommendations, new songs and albums added to the service. Also to those who have been in the history of music for some time and who deserve to be remembered. In this sense, especially if you give more priority to finding new music or remembering old classics, Tidal takes the prize. If, on the other hand, you prefer a service that recommends music lists based on your tastes, Spotify is for you. We can say that Tidal is working harder when it comes to finding new jewels.
Sound quality
If you are concerned about sound quality and want to enjoy the best, we have to tell you that Tidal wins here by far.And this service has a more expensive HiFi subscription based on FLAC, the same quality that we have on CDs. This means that we can enjoy a song or album at 44.1 kHz, 16 bits and 1411 kbps bitrate. As we said at the beginning of the article, it is a quality four times higher than the best of Spotify.
For the rest, and removing this HiFi subscription, Spotify and Tidal behave the same. Both have normal quality at 96 kbit/s. A high quality at 160 kbit/s or a maximum quality at 320 kbit/s. It can also be adjusted so that it becomes automatic, depending on the network to which we are connected. One thing we have observed is that in the background Spotify works without problems on iOS even when the camera app is open. The same does not happen with Tidal, which is deactivated when using this or other apps.
Content
It's true that Spotify is one of the music streaming services with the most content. It has more than 30 million songs. However, Tidal, which started its journey in 2014, currently has more than 53 million songs. It is a rather striking difference, which can end up convincing us if we opt for one or the other. For the benefit of Tidal we will also say which offers more than 200,000 music videos in HD quality,as well as exclusive content from different renowned artists. Since it is the first online music service owned by artists, we find content from Beyoncé, Kanye West, Rihanna or Jay-Z himself. It's easy to find concerts and other videos on Tidal that you can't see on other platforms. Right now, for example, you have one from ColdPlay exclusively.
Price
The price can also be another reason to choose one or the other. As we say, Tidal is now available for free for Vodafone users for one or two years, depending on the rate (Red M or Red L). Without offer, its price is 9 euros per month for the premium modality and 18 euros per month for HiFi. For its part, Spotify has several pricing plans tailored to each customer. It has a normal premium plan for 10 euros per month (1 euro more expensive than Tidal). Another Familiar is also available for 15 euros per month or bimonthly for 2 euros, if we use it on the PlayStation.
Unlike Tidal, Spotify also offers discounts for students with the possibility of obtaining the service for 5 euros per month. Of course, both Tidal and Spotify allow you to try the service for a month completely free.
