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| Image Source: digitaltrends.com |
Whether you’re a Spotify addict, a Pandora fan, or (by the slimmest of chances) a Beats Music subscriber, there’s one thing that nearly all major streaming services have in common: low quality audio. Oslo, Norway’s Aspiro Group aims to bring music streaming up a notch with Tidal, a new CD-quality streaming service launching this fall in the U.S. and U.K. And to pad Tidal’s landing, Aspiro Group has already brokered partnerships with 16 audio companies to host its new service.
Some audioheads may recall Sonos’ recent announcement of exclusive rights to Deezer Elite, another service that offers streaming at CD quality, which, at 16-bit/44.1-kHz resolution, far exceeds the MP3-level music users get from virtually all the big names in the industry.
Tidal has already matched Deezer Elite’s partnership with Sonos, and tacks on other big names including Denon’s new HEOS system, and Harman’s recently announced Omni speaker system, which we had a chance to preview at IFA this year. Apart from those bigger players, Tidal has announced partnerships with Bluesound & NAD, Meridian, Auralic, Electrocompaniet, Simple Audio, Raumfeld, Dynaudio, Audiovector, Pro-ject, Airable by Tune In Media, HiFiAkademie, and ickStream.
When it launches sometime this fall, new subscribers to Tidal will be greeted by a $20/month subscription fee — twice the cost of most low-res services. For the heftier investment, Tidal users will get commercial-free access to 25 million lossless audio tracks streamed in FLAC or ALAC format, over 75,000 HD music videos, and “tailor-made editorial” from music journalists.
Along with its impressive list of audio partners, Tidal will also be available for both iOS and Android devices, as well as offering Web players for Mac and PC. And the company claims its first 16 partners are just the start. Tidal will look to garner more audio partners in the future and is looking to expand to as many as 50 countries worldwide.
It should be interesting to see the reaction to Tidal when it hits the scene this Fall. Will listeners be willing to pay an extra $10 for top-notch streaming, or will the service be yet another casualty to the 10-million-strong reign of Spotify? We’ll keep our eyes on Tidal as it approaches its launch, and will update this story accordingly as more details arise.
Timothy Munro Roberts’ StationDigital is a multitasking cloud-hosted online streaming service that allows subscribers access to a bank of over 20 million songs by thousands of different artists. For more updates and news on the music industry and online music streaming, follow this Twitter account.
