Tidal Store Closing

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EdisonLite View Drop Down

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Joined: 18 October 2004
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Posted: 14 November 2022 at 12:59am

Brian W. wrote:

Tidal streaming will still remain open. But, yes, 7Digital
seems to be on its last legs... they've lost Sony and
Warner.

Brian, did you ever read why Sony and Warner stopped making their lossless
files available to 7 Digital, yet still to qobuz? And when did this happen? Both
labels at the same time?

EdisonLite View Drop Down

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Posted: 14 November 2022 at 1:02am

AutumnAarilyn wrote:

Aren't labels cannibalizing their sales by making
downloads
"unavailable" sort of like they did with vinyl in 1989, cd
singles in the 90's (in the US anyway), and the current
lack of licensing older material reputable third partiesfor
cds. This is what happens when power is in the hands of a
few after all those mergers.

Yes. And sometimes on qobuz, I'll find a song I want to buy, but then it says
"download unavailable". It's only available for streaming. Then there are
cases where a song isn't available for sale on qobuz, 7D, Tidal, iTunes, and
literally the only place I can find it is Spotify. So I have to record it off there
instead of buying the file from qobuz, etc. Very frustrating. Other singles on
qobuz are, say, $1.79 - but from me they get 1 stream. Doesn't make a lot of
$ sense to me.

crapfromthepast View Drop Down

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Posted: 28 July 2024 at 6:29pm

I recently started a trial membership to Tidal.

Their website has the following in their FAQ:

CAN I STILL ACCESS MUSIC IN MQA OR 360 REALITY AUDIO ON TIDAL?

No. As of July 24, 2024, music in the MQA or 360 Reality Audio formats is no longer accessible via any TIDAL application or integration.

For stereo sound, FLAC was chosen as the format we’ll support going forward because it is open source—meaning any artist can deliver their music in high quality directly to TIDAL without the involvement of a third party. This makes it easier for their fans to experience music in the highest possible sound quality on all their devices.

For immersive sound, Dolby Atmos was chosen as the format we will support going forward due to the number of compatible devices, catalog availability, and artist adoption of the format. Through our continued partnership with Dolby, we’ve given artists the opportunity to expand on their sonic vision, allowing their fans to experience their music like never before.

For those of you that remember MQA, it was a hyped format that claimed to give you better sound in 16 bits than was possible with conventional 16-bit audio. It was all BS. And, it turns out, it was lossy!

In null tests with Tidal-downloaded files, I've noticed artifacts that sound just like the artifacts you hear from lossy files. (Like comparing a 320 kbps mp3 to its lossless counterpart.) The artifacts show up only when I'm comparing a Tidal-downloaded file to a file that clearly doesn't have MQA (like a CD rip, a Qobuz-downloaded file, a TM Century file, a Promo Only file, or a Hitmakers file).

As I type this, we're after the July 24 deadline, and I noticed the artifacts from a file I downloaded just today.

I strongly doubt that Tidal will go through every file on its website to revert it to its non-MQA original state, if that's even possible.

Bottom line: I no longer trust Tidal for lossless files.

There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past.