I knew Tidal would continue to add MQA releases, of course.
I hoped that instances in the past couple of years of Tidal new releases being seeded in MQA-only format were an anomaly.
I definitely didn’t see it happening that Tidal would start deleting Redbook FLAC versions of existing material on its platform to replace them with MQA.
I’ll give Qobuz a try but I’m not optimistic they’ve plugged their library gaps in the indie genres I like. I still hear of weird orphaned album collections littering up Roon too.
It will be interesting to do a Soundiiz migration and see just how many of the thousand or so Tidal albums I have favourited make it across.
In my situation Qobuz matched for about 70% (indie, alternative rock, psychedelia, singer songwriter). Had a recent (re-)check with same result.
Still waiting for Deezer Hifi to be integrated with Roon…
I’m disappointed to. I had both Q and T for months but found Q lacking in many genres I like so I dropped it. MQA sounds like crap to me. I’m revolting and spending some time with my local library for a few weeks and then I’ll decide what to do.
I lost about 20% or so when I moved to Qobuz from Tidal. Mainly 90s to 2010 less well known “indie” or “Pitchfork” type stuff. These days I’m mainly a classical and Jazz listener, for which Qobuz is better.
Give it a try, you might be surprised. I switched earlier this year from Tidal to Qobuz and was missing just a handful out of several hundred, and i would consider my favourite genres would be indie, punk and metal (maybe these days a lot of other genres thrown in :-))
(Edit: though my key years would be late 70s to mid 90s)
I agree, the Tidal MQA only direction is troubling. Personally, I wonder if this a phase one move by labels towards flipping the DRM bit in MQA.
I have Qobuz, too, but have been transitioning away from them to Tidal, mainly for Tidal apps. Also, I fear Qobuz is struggling. No concrete evidence, just a feeling based on pace of app development and response to customer issues.
If Spotify comes out with a lossless tier, all bets are off. I’m guessing they haven’t because Tidal/Deezer/Qobuz subs are a rounding error for them. And probably Amazon HD subs, too, although that might nudge them.
That’s what I did. I also transferred my albums to Spotify (free account), just as a reminder of what I had on Tidal. These days Tidal say they keep your favourites even when you end your subscription, should you want to rejoin later.
I just moved to Qobuz from Tidal because of the MQA move… Lost a about 25 albums of my 900ish. I have iTunes for my family (ease of use in Apple ecosystem), so I truly need listen those missing ones they are in Apple Music (obviously not hires though)
I really like the possibility to buy hires albums in Qobuz.
https://www.tunemymusic.com was free for single move and moved my Tidal library to Qobuz in about 5 minutes. There is monthly fee if you want to keep both in sync, but one move was free.
