Tidal is launching a free streaming tier and it won't come with ads (yet)

Date:
Wed, 17 Nov 2021 19:50:59 +0000

Description:
Tidal has announced a new free tier of the service that will allow you to stream 80 million songs from its library without ads... yet.

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Watch out Spotify , Tidal has announced a new free tier of the service that will allow you to stream 80 million songs from its library without ads.

The Tidal Free, as its aptly named, will vary from the companys famed HiFi
and HiFi Plus tiers by offering a significantly lower bitrate for audio streaming (160Kbps vs 1411Kbps on HiFi) and Tidal says it will interrupt
users periodically to remind them about Hi-Fi. That last bit could change later, but for now Tidal says it wont have ads.

That being said, the Free tier will also miss out on niceties like lyrics or offline downloads. Those features will be reserved for the paid tiers of the service.

Finally, according to Billboard , there will also be a difference in how the service pays artists based on which streaming tiers they use. For example, if a user has the Free tier, their listening habits wont directly contribute money directly to your favorite artists - theyll be paid based on a
collective number of listens. Thats different from the new Direct Artist Payout plan coming to Tidal HiFi Plus that will send 10% of your monthly subscription fee to your most-listened to artist. Analysis: Is this Tidals
big attempt to take on Spotify?

For years, Tidal has differentiated itself from other audio streaming
services by its commitment to CD-quality audio - but that selling point has since been copied by Apple Music and, soon, Spotify HiFi .

This new free tier seems like the obvious way to attract new customers as other services continue to copy Tidals strategic advantage.

Still, it does sound like a better user experience - ads are the worst part
of Spotifys base subscription tier and currently Apple doesnt have a free way to choose songs on Apple Music. Being able to choose which songs you listen
to without ads is the ideal scenario.

How long that will be the case, however, remains to be seen. Not sure where
to stream music? Check out our guide to the best music streaming services 2021: Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal and more



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/tidal-is-launching-a-free-streaming-tier-and-it -wont-come-with-ads-yet/


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