The only reason I have Tidal is sometimes they have something I want to hear that Qobuz doesn’t have. I do not like to come up blank on searches. Now that it’s half price I will like it even more. Plus, 24.192 is Way more common now. MQA is getting hard to find. I never thought it was worth having anyway.
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I got the following email:
On your first billing date on or after April 10, 2024, you’ll now pay just R69.99/month for all the same features you currently use on a TIDAL Individual plan. This is because we’re making it easier for everyone to enjoy best-in-class sound quality by combining our HiFi and HiFi Plus tiers into a single subscription tier called TIDAL.
That’s $3.71, down from about $5.85.
Not complaining.
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What country??!!
South Africa, Al
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Excellent my friend! Is the cost of living there such that what costs $20 US a month costs $5 US a month there? I am moving!!!
Sure Al let’s swop - but then also salaries 
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You wouldn’t like my salary. I am retired.
I got the same email. 120 dollars a year to smoke elsewhere. Like part of Bacch support subscription.
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In Sweden Tidal just mentioned that they merge the different subscriptions. I presently have got a family account for Hifi (16/44.1) as I only use a proper disc transport for high end sound (streaming is for the car or finding new music… and for the rest of the family).
Anyway, I will get 24/192 at my subscription from April without paying more or changing type of subscription.
As a business developer I’m just questioning why this have not been done earlier. They should have provided best quality possible at the start of Wimp (Tidals original name from when it was founded in Norway prior to beeing sold to the US artists).
When I founded a streaming company (Edu tech) 12 years ago we then went full HD directly instead of then common 480p as the prices of data bandwidth decreased so rapidly… if you could stream video inexpensive… back then… then you could stream 24/192 and 4x DSD (DoP) back then… no excuses other than a financial one.
Not providing quality have to do with economics and a disrespect for the demanding customer. But… most people don’t bother about quality and are satisfied with 320 mp3, headphones that provid artificial bass that makes me ill (expensive Sony headphone gear actually made me physically I’ll in the ears and nauseous)….
Well, streaming music is all about scale and market shares and nothing to do with quality… and as they all sell the same thing… they need to stand out… and not only use platform focus (as Amazon and Apple and cars etc…) and actually provide some more customer value…that’s why the services should provide something the others do not, and that’s why it’s a shame and strange that the competition not all ready have forced all of them, to provide raw native high res at the lowest subscription costs.
So as much as I understand why Tidal have not gone 24/192 at entry level subscription earlier, I still think it’s strange…
My summery is that I’m glad they finally made a decision they should have done 10 years ago and that my streaming will sound better, but still not be able to compete with high res disc transport
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Finally!
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For those who want MQA, the soon to be launched Lenbrook service may satisfy.
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I got a similar note from Tidal today in Australia. I quite like having the choice of MQA unfolding or FLAC in Tidal at the moment and will miss that.
Will be interesting to see if the replacements come in at what you get through MQA unfolding, eg 88 / 96k / 24b etc.
Tidal’s info is pretty unclear on this:
‘If you have an MQA track or album in your Collection – including in playlists – the track will automatically be replaced by the highest quality FLAC version that has been distributed to TIDAL.’
@Interested Good question.
I guess our experiences will be anecdotal.
I have a lot of albums in my TIDAL collection recorded and released in the 1990s on RCA and Teldec (Warner) which are still streaming MQA.
I naively assume these will be replaced with plain 16/44 only because many of these albums have never been released on anything but compact disc.
Maybe this example doesn’t get at the center of your question because the albums have never been released in high resolution.
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While I was never a fan of MQA and don’t know where they sourced their files from, I would be pretty annoyed if they replaced with a 16/44. Mainly because it would raise doubt the file ever was higher resolution, so why “MQA” it? It would also seem a type of “bait and switch” to get a lower resolution file. Regardless, this whole thing does not surprise me …
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Tidal has done his homework, finally MQA files in their databases are replaced to the highest available bitrate versions. Over here in the Netherlands that is already practical (using Aurender / Conductor4).
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Same. Think of the can of worms that scenario could open.
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From what I’ve been able to tell, Tidal has replaced MQA files with hi res files. I haven’t noticed any that went back to 16/44.
So for example, Peter Gregson’s Quartets 1-4 is still available in MQA (although presumably that will be ending soon). The alternatives are 24/96 and 16/44.
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Took a look at some older stuff. Joni Mitchell’s Ladies of the Canyon is available in MQA on Tidal but also in 24/192 FLAC.
