Spotify vs Tidal vs Apple Music vs Youtube Music which one is better?
I spent a few months with each of them recently.
For me, Apple Music recommendations are by far the best. Tidal was decent but the UI was a pain and the integrations didn’t work well. Spotify had great integrations and easy device switching, but the recommendations were terrible, for me. YouTube music is the worst of the batch. Bad UI, bad recommendations, and just not a music lovers platform.
So, I use Apple Music. For me, it is the best since the GOAT Google Play Music was retired.
Interesting. For me, none of any recommendation algorithm worked decently well for me. I find new bands via following other bands (on Instagram, sadly), look at what they listen to, what bands they hang/tour/do concerts with or by asking other punks or by checking other communities.
I’m thinking of switching to Tidal. I’ve had YouTube music for awhile and I like it, but I just learned they fired a huge chunk of their staff after they unionized and that pissed me off. Anybody know how their rock and jazz selection is, especially with smaller lesser known artists?
I mainly listen to punk and it’s extremely hard to find bands that are not on Tidal. When I migrated my playlists to Tidal from Spotify, there was only 1 Band which didn’t exist on Tidal. But because it was only 1 song that was part of one of my playlists, I simply didn’t care.
I don’t even remember which one it was.Aha, they’re called Valentiine (3 piece all-girl garage rock band from Melbourne, Australia) and they’re still not on Tidal. Still don’t care.Can’t speak for Jazz though.
Tidal is the most popular option for audiophiles. What I also like about it is the fact that they pay artists much more fairly than other platforms. According to this, they payout $0.013 per stream on average (which means $1 per 77 streams). Because I listen to a lot of unknown artists it is important to me to be on a platform where I can support those artists much more directly.
AFAIK Spotify only pays the overall most listened to artists like Taylor Swift etc. I canceled my Spotify subscription when Neil Young quit Spotify.
EDIT: because this is becoming a bit popular, for anyone looking to migrate from Spotify to Tidal, I recommend this simple to use python script to migrate your playlists. And because we have a lot of Linux users here, check out tidal-hifi.
Is Neil on Tidal? I know he is in QoBuz.
He is!
And I think he returned to Spotify as well.Nope, still off.
Tidal may be most popular but the use of the lossy MQA codec for their “lossless” offerings is objectively worse than Deezer, Apple music and even Amazon Music.
Good thing they are migrating to FLAC! Also, while MQA is objectively worse, subjectively it’s pretty much equal to objectively better options. At least for us humans :) I found this double-blind test of MQA critic Archimago and they couldn’t find a statistically significant difference between MQA and PCM :)
I really wanted to like tidal, but honestly it’s not really good. The search sucks, no offline mode on desktop, no official Linux client, an incomplete catalog…
It’s not worth it, even if they are the least bad for paying artists.
honestly it’s not really good
*for you it isn’t
the search sucks
what’s wrong with it? works fine for me
no offline mode on desktop
why would you need it? it’s supported on phones, just listen via phone?
no official Linux client
Neither does apple music. Tidal are open sourcing their SDK though
an incomplete catalog
*for you. for me there isn’t
It’s not worth it, even if they are the least bad for paying artists
Again, for you. On paper, tidal is the better option and I rather support artists than some questionable monopolistic corporation
Damn, you’re shilling hard!
I don’t want to use my phone for basic features like the offline mode, I’m not always connected to the internet on my laptop, that’s it.
I don’t care about Apple music, and almost every streaming platform provides some kind of SDK. It doesn’t change the fact that I don’t have a Linux client, and probably never will (or at least feature-complete) because they partly use Dolby Atmos, which is a closed-source licensed format.
And no, even on paper, tidal’s not the better option to support artists. Buy tracks on Bandcamp, buy merch and vinyl directly from artists…
I’m talking in the context of streaming services here…
Maybe you’re right with the Linux client part, but I don’t know any other streaming service that does provide one? At least Spotify and Apple Music don’t. Does it make them also not worth it? I would disagree.
I never said tidal is the best app to support artists. In that regard there is a better option, just give them your money for free. I meant as a streaming service, quality wise and in terms of paying artists, there are no better options.
What I didn’t like about your OP was the fact that you laid your personal opinions out and then concluded that tidal is not worth it. Doesn’t make me a shill when I answer with counterpoints.
Your counterpoints were all basically just “your use case is different than mine therefore you are wrong”.
No not at all
At least Spotify and Apple Music don’t
Spotify does have an application for Linux, if you’re gonna harp on about facts you should at least stick to them.
Point taken, guess I remembered it wrong. But if you take a look at the arch wiki, they say that your mentioned client is actually not official.
This article is mainly about the semi-official, proprietary Spotify for Linux client, which is developed by Spotify’s engineers in their spare time and not actively supported by Spotify.
This is perhaps the stupidest response I’ve read on Lemmy for a while. Nobody is entitled to an opinion these days.
Im expecting a response, quoting each paragraph I wrote, with only ‘For you’ as the text.
I don’t agree. He wrote it like it was absolute, whereas it’s a personal opinion. Like you stated correctly.
well it’s neither nor. I’m also pissed that there’s no Linux client, and they didn’t even try to make their windows client run in wine. so it’s not just one person’s opinion as i hereby confirm.
Not saying it’s not a valid point against tidal overall. I would also enjoy me a linux native client. However I don’t see why this is a valid point against tidal and for apple music.
Having said that. I found a bug in their windows client and the devs are very much receptive for feedback. Maybe in the future when more people use Linux they’ll come around and make one. Or the community will with tidal’s open source SDK.
Why do you keep mentioning apple music? OP never made any comparison to it or any other streaming service. He just communicated why the service didn’t work for him and you felt compelled to inform him that how he feels is his opinion?
You’re missing the point I’m trying to make. He’s stating his opinion, which his absolutely valid for him, but concludes that in general it’s not worth it and that it is not good. The only thing I did was mark his opinions, also mark my opinions, but conclude that in the general case there’s no better option. I only wanted to draw attention to this style of rhetoric which I don’t like as a discussion culture.
Btw I also don’t like the ad homimen argument e.g. “stupidest comment I’ve seen” etc. That’s not how a respectful discussion should be.
no offline mode on desktop
why would you need it? it’s supported on phones, just listen via phone?
So you’re saying this use case works for you??
Yes!
Why would you waste your own time with a comment like this?
What do you mean? I’m interested in his opinion and he wrote it like it was an absolute fact. Poor way to start a discussion imo.
That’s his opinion, that’s the fact for him. How obtuse do you have to be to waste your time like that?
I’m not arguing against his personal opinions, I’m arguing against his conclusion that tidal is not worth it (for everyone,because that is how it is worded).
How is it of your concern how I spend my time?
That’s a pretty good price, if YT music ever takes away my $8 a month early sign up pricing I’ll probably look at swapping over.
Who uses YT music when there are so many free clients?
