Hmmmm.
I’m more “Uh oh” than hmmm.
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If they keep Tidal as a separate entity then it might be ok…as they may keep their current Lossless delivery infrastructure and hopefully their MQA Plans
If like Mog / Beats, it just gets “blended” into Apple Music, then that would indeed be terrible news
I just cannot see Apple taking either Lossless delivery or MQA on board
My 2 cents If this acquisition happens Apple will not deliver lossless thus putting the brakes on MQA. Tim Cook has an enterprise software background so everything to him is bottom line what’s going to make Apple and its shareholders money. Lossless streaming and MQA will not contribute to Apples bottom line.
And nor will supporting Roon. Roon’s few thousand customers will mean nothing to Apple. I really hope this does not happen.
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An article with more detail
http://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-in-talks-to-acquire-jay-zs-tidal-music-service-1467325314
This is not good news. Apple is interested in Tidal’s customer base and in their exclusive deals with pop artists. Why would they give a damn what a few thousand audiophiles think.
I hope this does not happen.
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If Apple keeps Tidal as a separate entity or market as premium service then it is likely it will continue to stream lossless CD quality and even high-res down the road. If Tidal is integrated into Apple Music like Beats, chances are slim. I guessed I have to look somewhere else 
If this were to happen id see no way that Apple would keep it separate entity. They might keep the lossless tier as at premium but i wouldn’t bet either way. The irony is Apple’s interest is the exclusive albums that i’d guess the vast majority of people here couldn’t care less about.
More reason for Deezer and Qobuz to partner with Roon Labs. I use Deezer Elite with my Sonos, and it’s darn good. Deezer could integrate with Roon just as easily. It’s a great streaming service.
The only positive to this article is that Apple is not trying to buy Roon Labs.
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Not surprised. In my own opinion this was probably the intention from the get go when JayZ started TIDAL. This is proper investment management and he pulled it off.
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[quote=“rrwwss52, post:12, topic:12055”]
Deezer could integrate with Roon just as easily.[/quote]
I don’t think anyone involved with the Roon/Tidal integration would describe it as easy. The fact that we haven’t seen any plans announced as regards integration with other services some 15 months after launch speaks volumes about how singularly special that integration is.
[quote=“allineedis, post:13, topic:12055”]
… When JayZ started TIDAL[/quote]
JayZ and other artists acquired TIDAL. I was in it before he was.
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If Apple pull lossless or stop MQA plans, I am out.
I have enough music in my personal library and am happy to buy more.
I support Tidal because they are independant ish, deliver lossless, pay musicians better and have MQA plans along with Roon Sooloos integration.
with Apple’s approach to FLAC (it does not exist for Apple) this would be quite interesting… Either apple starts supporting FLAC, or they will make TIDAL to stream in ALAC?
I have complete confidence the Roon Team could make this happen if Deezer or Qobuz were willing. I understand Deezer has some exclusive commitments to Sonos (and Bose), but those shouldn’t be permanent in nature. I contacted Deezer a couple of months ago expressing my hope they would partner with Roon.
Agree. But part of the special nature of the integration was the extent to which Tidal was willing to give the Roon team all the info/access to make it happen. Other streaming services all seem to not want to do that.
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This would be a disaster for Roon, wouldn’t it, as Tidal is the only streaming service available for Roon and if Apple buy they are unlikely to allow the same access.
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There’s a possibility if Apple decides to keep the lossless streaming and convert from FLAC to ALAC. This may create incompatibility with MQA as it is encapsulated in FLAC.