Apple Music and Tidal are two of the best music streaming platforms that acting different roles side by side. Both of these offers millions of songs, playlists, and albums. Apple Music was founded in 2015 and Tidal founded in 2014. But now Apple Music and Tidal are two of the most using apps for music streaming. Apple Music vs Tidal, Which is better for you? Let’s have a closer look at the essential features of Apple Music and Tidal.
Apple Music vs Tidal Price
Apple Music individual plan available for US $9.99. Also student plan available for US $4.99 which comes with Apple TV plus access. Family plan of Apple Music costs US $14.99 and up to six members can listen from one subscription from that. Apple Music offers 3 months of free trial for their new users.
Tidal Plans are the same as Apple Music from the pricing but the difference is Tidal has a hi-fi plan and they sell it separately. The premium plan of Tidal costs US $9.99 and the High Fidelity plan with lossless audio and video costs US $19.99. also, the Tidal premium student plan costs US $4.99 and the Tidal hi-fi student plan costs US $9.99. Tidal premium family plan for US $14.99 and Tidal hi-fi family plan for the US $29.99. The important thing is Tidal offers discounted plans for military and community heroes. Military premium and Community Heroes – First Responder Premium plans for US $5.99 and Military hi-fi and Community Heroes – First Responder hi-fi for the just US $11.99. Tidal offers a limited 30 days free trial for their new users.
Apple Music vs Tidal Music Library
Apple Music and Tidal have about 70 million tracks and thousands of playlists. Both Apple Music and Tidal offer music videos, live shows, and interviews. But Tidal has more music videos than Apple Music. Tidal offers you about 250 000 high-quality music videos. On other hand, the playlists made by Apple Music are very popular and people love them because of their good mixing. The radio stations in Apple Music is another feature that people love. You can download and listen to your favorite tracks offline on Both Apple Music and Tidal. You can download up to 100 000 tracks in Apple Music and they sync across all of your devices that signed from one apple ID. Tidal hasn’t a download limit but only 5 devices that signed from one Tidal account can download tracks. overall we can’t select a winner from Apple Music vs Tidal Music Library.
Apple Music vs Tidal Sound Quality
Streaming quality is a very important thing for music streaming services. Talking about sound quality, Tidal is the overall winner. Tidal sell their Hi-fi sound experience separately as Tidal Hi-fi. It brings a lossless audio experience with Dolby Atoms and 360 reality audio. Thanks to the partnership with MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) Tidal offers more natural sounds from the original master source. Keep in mind higher quality eats lots of data. A song from Tidal master quality takes 26.25 MB and HI-FI quality takes 20MB. But streaming from normal quality only takes 2MB. You can change streaming quality between normal, high, hi-fi, and master quality.
Apple Music is completely different from Tidal from sound quality. Apple Music streams 256 kbps AAC files and you can’t change the streaming quality in Apple Music. The only thing you can do to reduce the data usage is turn on the data saver in your device.
Apple Music vs Tidal User Interface
Both Apple Music and Tidal have beautiful user interfaces and easy to handle and browse. Both of these have full-screen media players.
Apple Music has 5 tabs. ‘For You’ tab of Apple Music was replaced by the ‘Listen Now’ tab. It brings more persanalized mixes, suggestions, and playlists based on your listening history. Tidal has also 4 tabs and your music has been organized in there. The noticeable thing is Tidal has a ‘Videos’ tab and all documentaries, live performances, and music videos can be found there. Tidal desktop app’s UI is similar to the mobile app. Because of that Tidal desktop version is easier to handle than Apple Music. Also Tidal has a web player that can score more than Apple Music.
Apple Music vs Tidal: Devices You Can Listen
Apple Music comes with every iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. Also, it is available on HomePod and Amazon Echo devices. Apple Music is now available for Android and Windows. You can stream music from your car using Apple Car Play. Now playing songs in Apple Music from Google Nest devices is possible. Apple Music introduced a web player last year. It is still in development but you can access your music library from anywhere by signing into your Apple ID in the web player.
Tidal is available for both Android and iOS. Also Tidal has a desktop app for PC and Mac. Tidal is available on more platforms than Apple Music. It can be found on Android TV, Apple TV, Fire TV, Roku, Vizio, Samsung Smart TV, etc. You can cast from Tidal using both Chromecast and Airplay.
Tidal hi-fi is also supported in all platforms mentioned above.
Apple Music vs Tidal Social Sharing
You can find and follow your friends and their playlists in Apple Music. Followers can see what you are listening in their Listen Now tab. Also you can see what your friends are listening. But unfortunately Tidal didn’t think much about social sharing. You can connect Tidal to Facebook and you can see your friend’s activities who subscribed to Tidal.
Apple Music vs Tidal: Which is Better for You?
Apple Music vs Tidal, Which will you choose? We can’t give the right answer to this question. It depends on you. If you have an Apple Ecosystem, Apple Music is the better option for you. But keep in mind Tidal is available on more platforms. If you care about streaming quality lots and like to hear sounds from high quality, Tidal master plan is suitable for you. But it cost extra money. To see what artists are doing, Tidal is good because they offer lots of documentaries, interviews, and live shows.
I think this article will help to make your decision easier. Read our Spotify vs Apple Music comparison for get know why Spotify is more popular than all other streaming services.
