Tidal is better than Spotify, these are facts!
Every day I start with good intentions. I’ve got songs to transcribe, blogs to post, emails to answer, gigs to prep for, social media post schedules to keep up with, and a dog to walk.
But then I switch on Tidal. Today it was Melody Gardot, or that’s how it started. Eight hours later, I’ve been through Rufus Wainwright, Radiohead, Can, Cherry Ghost, Wes Montgomery, and even Stereophonics. I mean, when you can swap this quickly, there are no limits.
I realized a while back that I preferred podcasts about football to albums. That was a red flag, as the kids say.
Then I heard about stems on the new Rane 4 DJ controller and how, if paired with Tidal, you could remove the vocal, bass, drums, or chords. This meant I could keep the vocal, bass, and drums but add the chords myself to any track—I was sold!
So, I signed up but haven’t gotten to the stems feature yet; it’s been a week.
All I do is put one tune on, using relatively cheap headphones (Sony WH-CH520), which over Bluetooth compress the audio so nowhere near the quality of headphones they have in the video at the top of this page.
Still, with my relatively cheap headphones, that’s it—cancel everything. I can’t stop listening.
It’s the clarity, the separation in the mix. I can’t get over it. I think I might have to become a full-time DJ so I can play this at a loud volume and get paid for it.
In the beginning, I switched between Spotify and Tidal and concluded that Spotify sounded like “my first master”—distorted and digital. Now, I don’t think about that. I’m never going back. I’m not even comparing anymore. I don’t have time; all I have time for is listening to everything on Tidal.
Tidal sounds wider, more true to what the original recording must have been like.
I feel like I’ve been starved for years, and finally, a feast has been laid out, and I can’t stop eating.
Music is the best. Why do people go to work when they can stay at home and listen to OK Computer?
I guess they can do it on the way to work and back. I walk the dog now with Tom Waits, wondering what he’s building in there, and I love it. The dog loves it too—the walks are longer.
Everything is now better, but I’m not getting much done…
If you’re still on Spotify, you need to swap. You may, just like I was, be late to the party, but it’s all good. Better late than never.
Maybe you’ve heard that it’s the record companies that own Spotify and how the top dog at Universal earned more than all U.K. songwriters combined.
I don’t care. I care about checking Pink Floyd’s The Division Bell on Tidal, in 192 kHz resolution. Or Tom Petty’s Wildflowers.
I’ve been in posh studios and heard the original source of a drum kit and guitar amp recorded to tape, and yes, that sounds much better than Tidal. Perhaps the gap is as big between the studio and Tidal as it is between Tidal and Spotify.
Maybe I’m wearing rose-tinted spectacles, reminiscing about a great band recorded to tape, but it’s that same feeling. This sounds so great, and it makes me so happy.
Anyway, gotta go now. I just came back home from yet another dog walk and saw how the kitchen tap had been on for two hours. I blame Tidal—it’s removed me from life.
Tidal vs Spotify | Related Pages
About me | Dan Lundholm
