Lossless Streaming? Say hello to Tidal

[Mike]

TIDAL High Fidelity Music Streaming Service Continues Rapid Expansion Preparing Launch in 22 New Countries

5th February 2015 Oslo, Norway – TIDAL, the first High Fidelity lossless music streaming service with HD music videos and
Curated Editorial, today announced it will launch its service in 22 new countries during the first quarter of 2015, namely Austria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, South Africa and Turkey. Including previously launched markets, by the end of March TIDAL will be available in 30 countries. TIDAL now has 37 home audio integration partners.
“We continue to accelerate our expansion, as demand for our product keeps rising,” said TIDAL CEO Andy Chen. “Besides directly from consumers, we are also seeing a very strong growth from new home audio partners. We now have 37 confirmed partners to offer TIDAL across the broadest selection of home audio systems”

Growth in home audio systems
Twelve home audio integration partners are already live with TIDAL and running seamlessly on their systems, namely, Sonos, Bluesound, Linn, Simple Audio, Auralic, Mirage, Squeezebox, Amarra sQ, Mcintosh, Wadia, Electrocompaniet and Meridian. Users just need to sign up to the service for access.

Commenting on the development of the home audio integrations, Chen said: “After just three months live with TIDAL in the US, we are already seeing 18 percent of streams coming from home audio systems, increasing steadily month by month, as new integrations get up and running. Experiencing TIDAL on high-quality home audio systems and headphones proves just how good high-quality music streaming can sound. 2015 will be the year a lot of people discover that.”

The top three individual home audio systems with the most streams from TIDAL so far are Sonos, Linn and Bluesound.

TIDAL parent company Aspiro reported its year-end report for 2014 today, posting a 75% increase in paying HiFi-users from the previous quarter and 28% year-on-year revenue growth for its music business segment.
The ideal music service for those who care about quality, TIDAL welcomes new users to enjoy its extensive library of 25 million-plus tracks, 75,000 music videos, and curated editorial articles, features and interviews written by experts. Ad free and available for a monthly subscription of 19.99, visit www.tidalhifi.com or download the app from iTunes App Store or the Google Play Store.

TIDAL has spent considerable time building up its extensive catalogue of lossless HiFi-quality music and HD music videos. With distribution agreements signed with all of the major labels and many independents, TIDAL offers a comprehensive catalogue that includes a wide range of genres to suit all musical tastes.

Available across iOS, Android, network players, and PC/Macs, TIDAL offers high fidelity, lossless sound quality, a prerequisite to enjoying music the way it was intended by the artists. Streaming at more than four times the bit rate of competitive services, users are able to enjoy TIDAL on a wide range of the world’s finest home and portable audio products.

Aspiro music streaming subscribers
31 Dec 2014
30th Sept-2014
Growth
Total paying subscribers
500,000
512,000
-2% *
HiFi-subscribers (WiMP and TIDAL)
35,000
20,000
75%
TIDAL-subscribers
12,000
0


* Decrease due to reduced bundle-offer with telco partners in Scandinavia
** TIDAL launched in US and UK 28 Oct 2014, in Canada 8 Dec 2014 and in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland and Ireland 22 Jan 2015.
Revenues
Full Year 2014
Full Year 2013
Growth
Aspiro music revenues
288,6 SEK m
225,9 SEK m
28%

TIDAL division of streams
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
Home Audio Systems
18%
14%
4%
Mobile
42%
46%
47%
Desktop / Web player
39%
39%
50%

Notes to Editors
· TIDAL music streaming experience at a glance:
· More than 25 million music tracks
· Lossless quality (FLAC/ALAC 44.1kHz / 16 bit – 1411 kbps)
· More than 75,000 music videos
· Curated Editorial provided by experienced music journalists and industry experts
· Dedicated apps available for iOS and Android phones and tablets
· Web player for PC/MAC

Amarra, Anthem, Airable by Tune In Media, Astell & Kern, Audeze, Audiovector, AudioQuest, Auralic, Aurender, Bel Canto, Bluesound & NAD, Dan D’Agostino, Definitive Technology, Denon, DTS Play-Fi, Dynaudio, Electrocompaniet, Harman Omni, HiFiAkademie, ickStream, JH Audio, Linn, McIntosh, Meridian, Mirage, MartinLogan, Musaic Paradigm, Polk, Pro-ject, PS Audio, Raumfeld, Simple Audio, Sonos, Steinway Lyngdorf, Wadia, Wren Sound Systems with more to come. See tidalhifi.com/download for live integrations.

Available in US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Coming during first quarter 2015 in Austria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, South Africa and Turkey.

Follow Tidal at http://facebook.com/tidalhifi and http://twitter.com/tidalhifi

TIDAL and WiMP HiFi are music streaming services owned by Aspiro Group, listed on the Nasdaq OMX in Stockholm, with HQ located in Oslo, Norway. The service was launched in 2010 and is also available in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Poland.

About Aspiro:
Aspiro is a media technology company on the forefront in the ongoing redefinition of music consumption. Through its subscription services TIDAL and WiMP, the company offers a complete music experience with HiFi quality audio, Curated Editorial, and video. In parallel, Aspiro is a content provider to the online media industry through RADR, helping its partners to attract and retain visitors on their web sites. Read more on Aspiro

 

[joeinid]

I really love the sound quality of Tidal through a great DAC.

 

[Odyssey]

Got a message early this morning that Tidal was down for "maintenance".

Don't know a lot about streaming music services. But isn't 8:00 AM CST a strange time for maintenance? The message ended by saying that they would email me once the service was up again. Anyone seen this before?

 

[CDLehner]

Got a message early this morning that Tidal was down for "maintenance".

Don't know a lot about streaming music services. But isn't 8:00 AM CST a strange time for maintenance? The message ended by saying that they would email me once the service was up again. Anyone seen this before?

TIDAL is based in Sweden my man

 

[Dewster]

IMO, Tidal has better sound quality vs Spotify or Beats..

 

[CDLehner]

Hmm; have to admit...I don't mind this:

Jay Z's first order of business: Cut Tidal subscription fees in half (update)

Oops; guess I should have read passed the headline :blush:

 

[mep]

So what is involved with setting this up with Jriver to play over a DAC?

 

[CDLehner]

So what is involved with setting this up with Jriver to play over a DAC?

I don't know if JRiver has a plug-in yet. So you'd have to use a browser, or buy a solution that has it integrated (like Aurender or Auralic

UPDATE- http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=92913.0

 

[still-one]

Sounds great via MDMS (Sooloos) They need to work thru a couple of issues but the integration is just like Rhapsody but with better SQ.

 

[bthomas9]

TIDAL on the Today Show this morning. Introducing all its owners Jay-Z, Rihanna, Kanye (cringe), and others. Interesting move having so many artists backing a streaming service.

 

[mep]

TIDAL on the Today Show this morning. Introducing all its owners Jay-Z, Rihanna, Kanye (cringe), and others. Interesting move having so many artists backing a streaming service.

:facepalm: Now there is a pack of genius business people.

 

[joeinid]

:facepalm: Now there is a pack of genius business people.

Kind of makes me feel dirty now.

 

[mep]

Kind of makes me feel dirty now.

What does?

 

[Womaz]

I think there was a rumour that Jay Z wanted to reduce the cost of subscription.......hopefully that would still be to access the lossless streaming.

 

[joeinid]

Kind of makes me feel dirty now.

What does?

Knowing Jay-Z, Rihanna, Kanye (cringe), and others are involved.

I should have been more clear, sorry.

 

[mep]

Knowing Kanye etc are involved.

I should have been more clear, sorry.

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[KeithR]

TIDAL on the Today Show this morning. Introducing all its owners Jay-Z, Rihanna, Kanye (cringe), and others. Interesting move having so many artists backing a streaming service.

They are lining up because Tidal aims to pay artists better and somehow still cut the price of admission to consumers (new 9.99 plan). Jay Z vs Dr. Dre now- who'd have thunk.

Too bad they haven't cut the price in the lossless service which is too expensive for 2014. They could have a competitive advantage if they streamed lossless at Spotify prices.

 

[bthomas9]

"Update: Turns out, that price drop is for an entirely new tier. The $10/month rate is for a regular version, while lossless streaming will still set you back $20."

No actual price drop....new tier level of service called"Tidal Premium" with "standard" sound quality...kinda hinky to me. Shouldn't standard sound quality be called, wait for it, Tidal Standard.

 

[mep]

We need a service that streams DSD. I would sign up for that as long as there was no PCM that had been converted to DSD.

 

[KeithR]

the positive of all of this is that Tidal has a much better chance of succeeding then when initially launched.