#qobuz

the ICE ads were the final NOPE to spotify.

anyway I've switched to qobuz and it's FUCKING MINDBLOWINGLY AMAZING. I was like "what difference could sound quality make?" BUT A LOT. iT MAKES A LOT OF DIFFERENCE. I'm hearing these songs like I've never heard them before, like I actually was lying on the floor for an hour with toddlers jumping all over me completely fucking entranced by the high fidelity fucking music like I'VE FUCKING SEEN GOD AND I'M CRYING

Tidal vs Qobuz

I want to move away from Spotify so I’m currently looking at transferring to Tidal or Qobuz. I’ve decided to use the 30 days trial on both apps to see which one I like more and do a report on it. This is my first impression so far.

Price:

Do NOT pay in app. They charge you more in apps going through Apple/Google Play so go on the website and pay instead.

(in NZD)

Spotify premium is currently $19/month.

Tidal individual pack is $17/ month with additional DJ add ons for $13.

Qobuz studio pack is $17.50/ month with another upgraded pack $25/month (this is more for if you want to buy music on Qobuz)

(Edit: the above Qobuz price is actually price per month for an annual subscription. Monthly subscription for a Studio is $22/month)

I’m currently paying for a student plan so they came up at about the same range price with $10.50 on Spotify (what I’m currently paying) , $8.50 on Tidal and $9 on Qobuz.

Qobuz does pay artists more with each stream than Tidal with 0.022/stream while Tidal pays 0.013/ stream. Spotify is currently paying 0.003-0.005/ stream.

Transferring:

Since I’m transferring from Spotify, I’m also looking at moving my songs library. I currently have 1739 songs in my library. Spotify stands on top in terms of songs accessibility but based on my case, I was able to transfer around 94% on Tidal and 89% on Qobuz. Tidal does have a larger library of music than Qobuz. I find that the songs that are usually unavailable are my anime soundtracks, smaller artists and some musicals.

Both apps have a third party they rely on to help users transfer their music library. I have an easier time with Tidal with everything transferring all at once with one click while what Qobuz uses can only transfer 200 songs at a time on the free option they have (unless you want to pay extra to be able to move everything all at once). It took me a while but I was able to transfer everything and they both tell you which songs weren't available. If you’re like me and put all your songs in Like songs on Spotify, you might require to make an entire new playlist of all your songs to be able to transfer on Qobuz. If you’re more of a playlist making person, you might have an easier time.

Now, both third parties that they use can make mistakes when transferring so do check your library after. Tidal might have replaced some songs they can’t find with close proximity cover/songs. Qobuz can miss some of the “unavailable” songs. I was able to look up some of the missing songs by hand and it was on there.

Interface:

Tidal has a more user-friendly interface than Qobuz. Qobuz is a bit less refined than the others but out of the two, I feel like Qobuz is closer to the Spotify interface. Tidal does allow more user-base interaction like following people while Qobuz is a more individual library. Tidal can also download mv video while Qobuz have articles/editorials feature.

I haven’t done any music discoveries on both so I can’t comment on those features.

Sounds quality:

Both Tidal and Qobuz sound quality are way above Spotify and there’s more options available for users to choose from. Spotify compressed your music and you can really tell when listening to the others. I’m not much of an audiophile so if you’re more of a casual listener like me, both Tidal and Qobuz sound quality is great! If we’re going a bit deeper than that, Qobuz does sound a bit better in my opinion.

Con/Deal breaker:

Unfortunately, both Tidal and Qobuz do not have a local files option, which means you can’t add your own music and if there was an option, it’s tricky third party.

Tidal does have some audio trouble based on what others have said like skipping or stopping randomly. I haven’t experienced this but what I did experience is song transition hiccup between songs (it had stopped now but I didn’t do anything to fix that). There’s also no gapless playback so no seamless song transition into one another (if it is available in the add-on, I wouldn’t know and I would not be paying extra just for that) Qobuz does have gapless playback.

Qobuz does not have a lyrics feature and that’s kind of a bummer to me.

Final thoughts:

It really depends on what you want and what you need. If I have to choose, I would probably go with Qobuz. Even though the interface is basic, it was an easier transition for me from Spotify. They also pay artists better. The biggest problem was mostly the time consuming transferring songs over and less available songs on the platform.

My deal breaker with Tidal is the gapless playback. I can’t deal with pauses between songs and I was also having hiccups between songs which kind of annoys me.

That’s mostly my thoughts on the first impressions of the two. Let me know your own experience with them or other options because I’m still in the decision making stage.

[Caption:

MUSIC STREAMING CHART 2.1

This blew up over on my bands page so I made some changes based on feedback over there.

Please continue to provide feedback if you see anything that is incorrect but remember, I'm ONE person with a full time job, a side hustle and a band.

I can't include EVERYTHING. If you want more info you're gonna have to find it yourself.

Re: Spotify - while they don't directly donate to Israel/IDF their chief exec, Daniel Ek, is leading a $700m investment in Al drone weapons. 🤮

Re: Tidal - they also don't directly donate to lsrael - but they are owned by Block inc who's biggest investors are Blackrock and Vanguard, so still very directly financially tied to Israel support 👎

There literally is no perfect streaming app but per my research your best alternative is STILL Qobuz.

It's complicated, I get it! Small artists depend on streams, especially on Spotify, to help build audiences and book gigs. I will not personaly judge anyone who continues to use the platform - the corporations are who we need to have beef with, not our friends! REMEMBER we are literally on a META app right now 🙃

l'II delete this if people get annoying about it. Just thought I'd share since it was difficult for me to find all this info easily, I wanted to make it a lil easier for yall.

There are some new apps coming into the picture that I need to dig into more such as Coda, Museek and Subvert.