I've known Spotify isn't great for artist royalties but just realising how bad now, so no flaming for being behind the times. So I'm planning to switch.
Tidal seems like best alternative but any other recommendations? IOS isn't one as we have a mix of Apple and Android in the family and the Spotify (and future) probably is better to remain as a family account.
Second on that point - it's Spotify family, with 4 accounts on that. I understand if I moved to Tidal there's an add-on to import library and playlists so you don't need to rebuild but is that easy, and any issues with the family account or is that just effectively 4 individual accounts that move one by one?
Last - some of the Spotify albums and playlists are downloaded to play on the move without using data, I assume Tidal allows the same but does that happen seamlessly to enable the files on Spotify to get deleted, or is that a manual task?
sure, but their website's never going to say if it's a real PITA and my family will disown me for making them go through it, whereas you lot will.
I made the switch to Tidal a while back because they paid better royalties to artists. It was set up by artists for artist, at least that was its sales pitch.
Music wise everything was on there that I listen to, lost some functionality with the family account controlling content (explicit lyrics). This has to be done at a local account level. Essentially you adopt individual accounts into a family plan. This means I had to tell a fib to set up an account for littleish one who is under 13.
However Tidal is not without controversy, since I signed up a company called Block bought a controlling share. They have just laid off a large number of staff and replaced them with AI.
I'm now looking to find an alternative, its proving difficult as no option seems great. YAY capitalism!
BBC News - Jack Dorsey's Block cuts thousands of roles as it embraces AI - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq570d12y9do?app-referrer=deep-link
Soundiiz will do the playlist moves for you. It used to be possible with a onemonth free trial but they may be wise to that now. It was around £5 a month for a sub with 1 month minimum.
Someone on a podcast was recommending Qobuz but how good it actually is I don't know
Qobuz - High quality music - Unlimited streaming and Hi-Res download store (United Kingdom)
I'm on Tidal. I didn’t have any issues importing my saved tracks, but then I don't have loads of playlists. For me it was a toss up between Tidal and Deezer, and I went with Tidal partly because the app allows you to use Sonos without going through the Sonos app, and partly because Deezer has some connections to a Russian oligarch.
That said, the Sonos thing is a bit flaky, and as blue77 points out Tidal aren't exactly the good guys. That plus recent events with the US are making me consider going to Deezer as at least a European company.
Qobuz are probably the best in terms of not being evil capitalists, but I'm not sure their discovery stuff is as good
Tidal for me. I run it continuously and it paid for a friend’s son’s Christmas present - he's an artist on Tidal.
I just signed up for the one month free trial on Qobuz. So ask me again in a month! First impressions are that I prefer the music curation (playlists made by actual humans rather than algorithms) but the “connect” bit seems a bit weird on my Yamaha musiccast stereo streamer thing. More news at 11…
I was with Spotify, then with Tidal now I'm on YouTube Music.
A couple of reasons, one I had tons of music uploaded to Google when it was Google Play, so I keep access to that (mostly mix tapes and some obscure tunes that aren't available on streaming) and secondly no adverts on YouTube when we watch it on the telly.
went with Tidal partly because the app allows you to use Sonos without going through the Sonos app,
Find this pretty flaky too, and android auto integration but not sure how much of this is the Google bit trying to interpret what I've asked. Might be linked to what feels like a change to the tidal algorithm, seems to make some odd choices on track radio now.
Would consider a switch, might give Deezer a go.
I went from Spotify to Qobuz, but - in short - it served up some proper nonsense unrelated to what I'd asked. Maybe I didn't give it long enough to get to know me... But I moved to Deezer and it seems much better to use. I fear it may be less sophisticated but actually, it does a decent job of playing music I want to listen to.
Soundiiz migrated my lists from Spotify to both Qobuz and Deezer, managed to do it for free in both cases without trying.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey says his technology firm Block is laying off almost half its workforce because artificial intelligence (AI) "fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company."
"Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes," he wrote in a letter to shareholders, external
Of course, the shareholders will be dead chuffed about this news!
How long will it be before they start to adopt the same approach to Tidal that Spotify has, removing many features that benefited their users, and turning it into a revenue stream full of advertising and lots of random tracks that no-one asked for and a high proportion of AI Slop.
I went to Tidal purely because Spotify ended up streaming the same 20 songs in a loop. For whatever reason Tidal thought I was in Romania when I signed up so I get the full deal + DJ add-on for 29.99 RON per month = £5.10 instead of £19.99. I've emailed their support to get switched to a UK account and they don't seem bothered.
It's better than Spotify, but I do think YouTube music has hands-down the best discovery algorithm if that's your thing.
I went from Spotify to Qobuz, but - in short - it served up some proper nonsense unrelated to what I'd asked. Maybe I didn't give it long enough to get to know me.
Yeah - same. I tried it for a while and didn't gel with it at all.
Currently have Spotify AND Tidal, should really bin one off.
Moved to Tidal for the sound quality, found the PC app kept crashing after a while so moved to Qubuz. Qubuz had better audio i thought. But the search was hopeless (can't get eg TripHop or other genre recommends) the app was frustrating, always defaulting to my phone when i wanted to play on my desktop, or if i was playing over chromecast at home and i went up to the high street it would start playing on my phone in my pocket. I mostly liked the European feel, but in the end the Danish Aesthete sense i got from all the blogs got me annoyed. I went back to Spotify with Lossless, but their lossless doesn't work w Chromecast or PCs and they have no exclusive mode on PC, so I am back w Tidal. THey've fixed their app so that is pretty reliable. Not sure how to assess the Block ownership thing.
We still have a Spotify Family acct, and I guess i should move everyone to Tidal, but EpicJnr uses it for social jams at Uni, and the car has spotify installed and i listen to the TrainerRoad podcast each week, so it would be frustrating.I guess i could just blutooth from anotther podplayer on my phone
IOS isn't one as we have a mix of Apple and Android in the family and the Spotify (and future) probably is better to remain as a family account.
I though Apple Music had an Android app? Certainly has family accounts. They seem to pay artists better then most and the features work for me. YMMV
I pay for YouTube premium so get YouTube music for free but I've never used it - plus it doesn't work with Roon music software
I tried Apple Music but didn't like the interface (despite being a Mac/iPhone user since 2000) - plus it doesn't work with Roon music software
I tried qobuz but they have a very poor selection of electronic music (95% of my listening habits)
Since 2018 I've been a Tidal user, quite happy with it and I pay £11/month, and it integrates with Roon - I never use the tidal app (except in the car) as I use Roon software on my iMac/iPad to dac to active monitors/subwoofers at home (plus I bought a lifetimes sub to Roon back in 2019)
I use Roon as its seamless to use, never had an issue on my iMac/iPad/iPhone, I use the PEQ options, and I like the interface
Never tried/used Spotify as I have a sneering dislike of Daniel Ek
This outfit do lots of infographic data breakdowns, and this one is where the spotify money goes....
I used to use Spotify when I first got into streaming about 10 years ago and I thought that it was great, apart from the fact that the quality was limited to MP3.
I tried a free trial of Qobuz, which sounded much better, but I found the music catalogue very limited when it came to what I wanted to listen to.
Then I switched to Tidal and that sounded great, but the UI was like something from the 80s.
Since Spotify launched their lossless tier I moved back to them and the whole family is on them.
The sound quality is maybe not quite as Quboz and Tidal, but the UI is miles ahead of the rest of them.
I wouldn't move back to any of the other streaming services now.
^ Pretty much nail / head comment. Tried them all but came back to Spotify.
Depends on why you are moving. If it's to support artists then you are better moving to Tidal or even better Qobuz and putting up with the UI issues. I've got a friend who uses Roon with Qobuz and it's really good at finding and recomending music but it's just to pricey for me