You don’t need to be an audiophile or spend a fortune on headphones to hear the benefit, you just have to listen. If, however, you have a compatible system that can realize the full resolution of a Tidal Masters file, you'll will be rewarded with a rich and detailed presentation that's worth the extra outlay. Sound quality is pure musical pleasure no matter what you listen on. Tidal streams at a CD-quality 1411kbps on its HiFi tier, while a HiFi Plus subscription gives access to content mastered in Sony 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos spatial audio, plus millions of true high-resolution audio tracks known as Tidal Masters that use MQA technology to stream at a giddy 9,216kbps. Its HiFi and HiFi Plus packages are mostly differentiated by audio quality. While Tidal recently introduced a free subscription option called (unsurprisingly) Tidal Free, offering 160kbps streams of its entire music catalog with “limited interruptions,” the perks of the music streaming service lie elsewhere. If it’s the music that primarily concerns you, and you’re prepared to pay to listen to it, there’s only one place to put your subscription money - and that’s Tidal. Only the lack of full hi-res support with Windows desktops may limit its appeal for some users. It's great value, has a large library ( now over 100 million), and the excellent and easy-to-use interface gives it further appeal. It also supports artists through its transparent remuneration policy.Īpple Music has recently increased its prices to $10.99 per month but offers full CD-quality streams as well as hi-res and spatial audio content.

Tidal has an extensive music library, wide platform support, and it sounds great.

Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate.Īt the top of our list of the best music streaming services, Tidal gets the balance right with a HiFi tier offering CD-quality sound (16-bit/44.1kHz) and costs $9.99 per month, and a HiFi Plus tier that adds Master Quality audio (up to 24-bit/192kHz), Dolby Atmos, and Sony 360 Reality Audio content for $19.99 per month. Why you can trust Tom's Guide? Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you.

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