Tidal vs. Spotify

Just following up on this.

I'm A/Bing Spotify and Tidal right now. There are definitely holes in both libraries and some non-overlap. Tidal definitely sounds better with the lossless streaming.

However...
For $10 a month, you can get 320 kbps with Spotify. If you're a student, that can be discounted further. Additionally, Sony just announced Spotify will be supported on PS3 & PS4, meaning that it can be a one stop media box. Additionally, I think the Spotify apps are pretty robust.

In a world without Spotify, I wouldn't hesitate to pay for Tidal. But Spotify just works so well at this point.

Following off BCGator, I think as a platform Spotify is just more competent at this time. As I've said previously, Tidal very clearly sounds better. I only get to listen off my good rig on occasion, but I'm always listening in my car, off my deepblue2 in the kitchen, off my laptop while I'm traveling, and off my iphone on the go.

My hope would be that Tidal either forces Spotify to go lossless, or Tidal gets the level of robustness/connectivity that Spotify currently has. If I had the money, I'd have Tidal for reference, Spotify for mobility, and Pandora for radio. But paying for premium service for 3 services just seems a little silly.

Ummm, the point is that the audible difference is clear, but a lot still has to happen for ease of use. If I sit down at my rig once a week, but I listen to music every time I walk, drive, cook, or fly, the lossless part of the equation only comes into play ~5% of the time.

My "reference" rig is ready for the throughput. The rest of my life isn't ready for the inconvenience. But thanks for the critique.