Music. The one thing that ties the world together. The era of downloading songs on your iPod or MP3 player is long gone. Now, it’s all about music streaming platforms. There are a handful platforms you can choose, Tidal and Spotify being two of the most popular ones. Now, with so many options to choose from, how are you meant to decide which one’s the best music platform for you? Hence, the Tidal vs Spotify comparison.
Tidal and Spotify both serve their functionality well. They provide users with the ability to stream their favorite songs, put together playlists, share songs with friends and family, listen to podcasts and so much more. Tidal and Spotify are so alike, yet at the same time, so different too.
Our team of experts decided to dive deep to understand which music streaming platform is suitable for different individuals. Keep reading to find out more.
Tidal vs. Spotify: Discovering New Tracks and Playlists
If you want a music platform that helps you to discover new music and different artists, it really doesn’t matter which platform you choose – both Tidal and Spotify do a great job. The two provide a vast range with varying tracks, artists and language. You can search for music based on your favorite genre, whether it is pop, jazz, hip-hop – you name it, and it’s there.
What’s more is that both Spotify and Tidal allow you to search for pre-created playlists based on different moods you may be in. They provide you with the latest music, party playlists, music to work out to – they have even got a playlist for when you are doing your household chore as well!
Depending on patterns based on the type of songs and genres you listen to, Spotify and Tidal will suggest and recommend new tracks and artists to you too.
So, if both of these music platforms provide the same features, what is the distinction between Spotify and Tidal?
Spotify
Spotify provides users with quite a well-known feature called “Discover Weekly”. This consists of a set of new songs based on your listening patterns, such as genre, artist and language. What’s great about Spotify’s Discover Weekly is that every Monday, you will wake up to a new Discover Weekly playlist consisting of 30 songs. What a start to the week, right? On top of that, Spotify puts together one to six playlists each day for you, in accordance to your music taste. Talk about personalization!
Tidal
When it comes to Tidal, the platform doesn’t provide users with a weekly curated playlist. Having said that, it will create around eight playlists based on the different music genres you listen to.
There is a feature called “Tidal Rising” which displays trending music and albums from new and latest artists. You have also got a feature called “Top” which displays Billboard’s trending songs based on genre, best songs and albums. On top of that it also displays the top hits of the last decade.
In conclusion, out of the two – Tidal and Spotify, both serve their purpose quite well. Having said that, Spotify wins this battle. This is because it recommends a greater number of playlists for each and every music genre that there is, in comparison to Tidal.
Tidal vs. Spotify: Battle of Sound Quality
There is no denying that Tidal wins this – it has the best sound quality. Tidal provides users with four different listening settings. These are Normal, High, HiFi and finally, Master. Out of these four, HiFi and Master are a part of the costlier audio settings. Let us explain the differences between the four.
The Normal setting aims to minimize the internet/data usage drawn by the streaming platform. This can come in handy if you have a limited mobile data plan. On the other hand, the High audio setting partners good sound quality with data – the setting enables Spotify to stream at 320kbps over AAC.
Now, as we mentioned, the HiFi and Master come with a price. We won’t bore you with the tech details of the two, but we are sure you have realized now that the sound quality becomes all the more better, depending on the type of audio setting you choose.
Spotify, on the other hand, has five different audio setting options to choose from – Automatic, Low, Normal, High and Premium. The top sound quality – Premium – is at roughly 320kbps, which is as good as the High audio setting that Tidal has to offer.
If your music quality matters to you a lot, we highly recommend using Tidal as a music streaming platform.
Tidal vs. Spotify: Different Plans, Different Prices
We are sure you are already aware, but in case you aren’t, you can use Spotify for free. Of course, buying the premium version of Spotify has its perks and benefits, like ad-free listening. But, if you don’t want to pay $9.99 per month, or $4.99 if you are a student, then there is absolutely no harm in not opting for the premium Spotify version. You can still shuffle between songs, create playlists, and skip up to six songs per 60 minutes. Spotify’s family subscription fee is $14.99, and allows you to add up to six Spotify accounts.
Tidal, to our disappointment, does not have a free plan. To subscribe to Tidal, you will have to pay a subscription fee of $9.99 each month. Just like the Spotify family plan, Tidal charges $14.99 per month, and lets you add up to six Tidal accounts as well. Even the student discount plan is the same – $4.99 per month.
Furthermore, Tidal gives you the option of choosing the HiFi plan. This plan provides better quality, but also costs twice the amount. In this case, the base subscription fee is $19.99 per month, while the family plan is at $12.99 per month, and students will have a monthly fee of $9.99.
Another feature that Tidal offers is a discount for anyone who currently is, or has in the past, served the US military. In this case, the base subscription price for Tidal is $5.99 per month, while the HiFi plan has a fee of $11.99 per month. Spotify does not offer this feature to its users.
Tidal vs. Spotify: Share Your Music With Your Friends
When it comes to sharing your favorite tracks on social media, Spotify is your friend. It allows for you to see what songs your friends are listening to, and share the songs you listen to on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Discord and Twitter. Along with this, you can see how many people have been listening to a particular artist at the end of the month too. This, we believe, is a great way to discover more songs.
Tidal isn’t the social platform out of the two. The only thing it will allow for you to do is share your music on social media.
Who Wins the Final Battle?
Spotify and Tidal are both brilliant music streaming platforms. Each one has features that the other doesn’t have. Not many people are aware of this, but Spotify has a feature which enables the streaming platform to stop playing music after a certain period. This is called the ‘sleep timer’.
Another feature that Spotify provides is the ‘crossfade’ one which gives you a smooth transition between two songs.
Both of these streaming platforms work with navigation apps – Spotify works with Google Maps and Waze, while Tidal has been integrating with only Waze. What this means is that you can have your songs playing in the background at the same time as your GPS.
Tidal, however, provides users with more information regarding songs. In fact, Tidal pays artists much more than Spotify does as well.
To sum it all up, there’s no “real” winner here. Both Tidal and Spotify are great platforms, each providing many similar features but also a handful of distinct ones too. Tidal, however, comes with a price tag. Spotify does too, but only if you opt for the premium version.
