Tidal and Spotify, as the subscription-based music streaming services, have their own strong points and receive much popularity from users. Different people have different impressions towards Tidal and Spotify and have their reasons to choose Tidal or Spotify as the fixed subscription service. This article will make simple comparisons between Tidal and Spotify in each side, and share the useful tips to use these 2 streaming services.
Firstly, let's look at the quick guide for the basic differences and similarities between Tidal and Spotify.
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| Founded | October 2014, UK, US, and Canada | October 2006, Stolkholm |
| Monthly fee | Tidal HiFi $10.99 / Tidal HiFi Plus $19.99 | Spotify Premium $11.99 |
| Family plan | HiFi $16.99 / HiFi Plus $29.99 for 6 family members | $19.99 for 6 family members |
| Student plan | HiFi $4.99 / HiFi Plus $9.99 per month | $5.99 per month |
| Military plan | HiFi $5.99 / HiFi Plus $11.99 per month (US only) | / |
| Free trial period | 30 days | 3 months |
| Availblility | 60+ countries | 180 + countires & regions |
| Number of users | over 5 million subscribers | over 574 million subscribers |
| Music library | over 100 million | over 100 million |
| Sound quality (Paid) | 1411 Kbps in FLAC for Tidal HiFi / Up to 9216Kbps for Tidal HiFI | 320 Kbps in Ogg for Premium |
| Offline listening | Yes, with paid subscription | Yes, with paid subscription |
Tidal offers three types of subscription – Tidal Free, Tidal HiFi ($10.99/month) and Tidal HiFi Plus ($19.99/month). Besides, it offers special discounts for a family, students and militaries - Family Plan (HiFi $16.99/month & HiFi Plus $29.99/month), Student Plan (HiFi $4.99/month & HiFi Plus $9.99/month) and Military Plan (HiFi $5.99/month & HiFi Plus $11.99/month).
Spotify provides users with two types of subscription – Spotify Free & Spotify Premium ($11.99/month). In addition, it offers special discounts for a couple, a family and students – Duo ($16.99/month), Family Plan ($19.99/month) and Student Plan ($5.99/month).
Verdict: 1) The price for a Tidal HiFi Plan and a Spotify Premium almost the same, while Tidal HiFi Plus is twice the monthly price of Spotify's Premium. 2) If you are a military, Tidal may be your better choice, from a cost perspective. 3) If you want to sign up a streaming music service with another person under the same roof, Spotify Duo Plan is more cost-effective.
Tidal Free option offers 160kbps while Spotify Free plan provides 128kbps on the web and 160kbps on the desktop or mobile app.
Tidal HiFi offers lossless CD-quality audio at up to 1411kbps and Tidal HiFi Plus offers authenticated and unbroken audio quality at up to 9216kbps (HiRes Free Lossless Audio Codec (HiRes FLAC), Dolby Atmos, Sony 360 Reality Audio, and FLAC.), while Spotify Premium provides up to 320kbps only.
Verdict: Tidal is winner over sound quality aspect and is the ultimate music resource for fans of hi-fidelity music. Especially when playing Tidal music via external speakers, the delicate difference of the audio quality can be distinguished. And if you are particular about audio quality, Tidal is the best choice.
If you want all your music from Spotify sound amazing, you can take multiple methods to improve sound quality. And here we list the best ways you can refer to change or improve the streaming or download audio quality on Spotify.
Learn More >The feature of discovering new music is also an important factor you should take into consideration when choosing a music subscription service. It includes music library, recommendation, radio, podcast, etc.
Music Library: Spotify offers over 100 million songs and Tidal also overt 100 million, but this only matters if your favorite artists or bands are missing.
Recommendation: "Discover Weekly" playlist on Spotify is really worth mentioning here. This is an awesome way to discover new music. But it seems that there is nothing similar in Tidal. Spotify remember the information each time you listen to a track, try a new artist, skip a song, repeat a song, or do anything else while using the service, in this way it quantifies the new music and a playlist with 30 new tracks that you might love will be refreshed every Monday morning. In addition, Release Radar, which works differently from Discover Weeklya and updates in each Friday, is a great place to discover new music. And another music discovery feature - Daily Mix is a good way to find more music.
But Tidal also has its own way to work out. It provides curated playlists, tracks, recommended hi-fi albums as well as top 20 charts and staff picks based on editorial slant. You can't search music by genre, but there is a Genres button you can press on in the sidebar which will take you to curated areas with playlists and recommended albums. In general, Tidal acts this feature simply and directly. And this all depends on what music you’re looking for and which way you really like.
Exclusive: Both Spotify and Tidal has its own exclusives, but Tidal may works most prominently. It has deals for exclusive content from major artists including Jay-Z, Beyonce, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj etc.
Music Videos: More than 650K+ high-quality videos built-in Tidal, including music videos, original contents, exclusive livestreams and events, is another factor that no rival can compare. Spotify now also offers some music videos in app and users can watch HD music videos on YouTube.
In addition to the built-in features that Spotify holds, there are plenty of third-party add-ons, or web-based tools which are using Spotify official API or not. Here we list the best 8 add-ons or web-based tools for Spotify, which are working with Spotify and bring your streaming music to a new level.
Learn More >Good social features make music service special. You can connect Tidal to Facebook which will allows you to share music with your friends or extract a URL if you want to link someone to any album, playlist or track. But the social features are not as mature as the ones in Spotify. It'll take a lot of work to catch up with it, but it should be expected.
Tidal and Spotify share a lot of commons. Both Tidal and Spotify offer a Free plan and provides free trial for 1-3 months if you decide to sign up for the paid version. Plus, no matter you are a Tidal member or a Spotify user, you can access over 100 million tracks, get rid of ads and download music for offline listening.
Tidal sounds marginally better if you have the equipment to show its true colors. They offer two totally different things: Spotify focuses on playlist for enjoying music on the go and share your favorite music to others, but Tidal is for audiophile who are high demanding for audio quality. On the other hand, If you have the budget, you can get Tidal.
If you want to download music from Tidal to your local computer, you can use Sidify Tidal Music Converter to convert Tidal music to MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC, AIFF and ALAC for normal playback. If you want to download your Tidal songs in the highest Master quality, you can also have this program to work it out.
Sidify Tidal Music Converter
Download Tidal music to computer.Convert Tidal tracks to MP3/AAC/WAV/FLAC/AIFF/ALAC format.Convert music at 10X speed.Keep HiFi and Master audio quality & ID3 tags after conversion.Free updates & technical support.If you want to save music from Spotify as MP3 files, you can use Sidify Music Converter to download music or playlists from Spotify as MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC, AIFF and ALAC files. Learn more about How to Download Music from Spotify as MP3 Files.
If you are looking for a tool to convert any streaming music (such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, YouTube, YouTube Music, SoundCloud, DailyMotion …) to MP3, Sidify All-In-One is the go-to choice.
Hanna Ellis | Content Writer
