Here’s my question: When a Tidal subscription lapses and downloaded tracks/albums will no longer play, does that imply that there’s some sort of DRM code embedded in the data? If so, does that digital watermark in any way degrade the fidelity? I haven’t noticed, but perhaps I’ve not got the late HP’s ears. Comments? Thoughts?
The tracks once downloaded are encrypted and held in storage. The app then validates that your subscription status is good and unencrypts the tracks for playback through the app. If you try and access these tracks outside of the app, through a file explorer, etc they won’t play for this reason. None of this has any audible impact on the sound.