MQA now on Tidal!

If it’s of value, we will just have to buy it. Cost go up, wages have to be paid etc
I have said it before, if you want something for nothing, don’t be surprised when you end up with nothing.
It’s all about priorities. I don’t subscribe to Sky BT TV etc, I don’t buy the latest phone that can’t do much more for me than my current one but I will pay for music and buy good equipment. Others will have different values.

You can have anything you want in life but for most of us, we can’t have everything.
So if a price increase bothers you, don’t buy a MQA DAC and stick with the App level of decoding and continue to buy your Music library in the old way to hedge against the day you bail out.
I wonder if that will be cheaper, even after any price rise?
Thoughts, Chris

1 Like

I agree with you chris but i talk about marketing strategies and transparency.
If the introduction of master quality to hifi subscribers is an “appetizer” I wanna know it.
Introducing it without saying nothing and then after some time tell “ok do you like it? You have to pay more” maybe it’s a smart move for the companies but for me is not fair for users.
I repeat I’m just guessing because at the moment we don’t know what Tidal means to do and at the moment I’m grateful to Tidal for having the opportunity to “taste” MQA but a simple statement would have been enough!
Ok my last words about this!

I agree but I am even more optimistic. Wages go up (maybe…) but technology drives cost down, dramatically and inexorably. I was a Sooloos customer, the system was near $20k, now Roon offers much more for $5 (total system cost with two endpoint). Part of it relies on mass production of computer technology: the Sooloos touch panel cost $7500 I think, the iPad is better for $500.

Services are a little different, you can lose the service because they go out of business. Also possible they raise prices, but then we come up against the other strong force for cost reduction: customer expectations and pressure. Maintaining or raising prices is very difficult. Look at Microsoft, lowered Windows to $0 on small devices. Got nothing to do with cost of production.

But we may lose services, sure. Why we should regularly export the Tidal album list to an .xls file (thank you, Roon).

I think too much emphasis is being placed on the word introducing. It does not say it is an introductory offer just it is being introduced for all Hi-Fi subscribers.

If you look at this page on their website there is no hint that this introductory either.

http://tidal.com/us/masters

Of course Tidal and any other services can change their prices whenever they like.

Until more labels than just the Warner catalogue. Tidal in no way could justify a surcharge for MQA, in fact they would be foolish, for just something that amounts to 30,000 - 100,000 files. I don’t see it any time soon IMO.

Don’t see price rises because of mqa intro- short term tidal needs millions more users… price rises will make that even less likely than it is already being already decidedly at the premium end…
I really value the service but let’s be honest. They’re making a big loss aren’t they if the reports are to be believed- great for audiophiles wanting convenience like us not so great for attracting mass market to the huge degree required and balancing the books or being acquired. They could put the price up again for masters… it would be a short sighted move and I could be wrong but do not see it - this offers something more akin to true high def vs cd (meh to most) and the real differentiator they think they need vs the vile MP3 hegemony of most music out there
We also have contracts don’t we…? Ok mine is only 1 month old. Anyway let’s keep fingers crossed things keep improving really looking forward to 1.3 and further development of mqa availability etc

I’m hugely impressed—I’ve been gorging myself on TIDAL’s MQA music all weekend (Roon->µRendu->Mytek Brooklyn). I still can’t believe I’m listening to streamed 192/24! Kudos to Warner for doing an incredible job lovingly remastering so much wonderful music (so much for fears of slap-dash MQA reissues). So fun to trawl through their excellent and eclectic catalog: classical, jazz, rock and everything in between. The detail and timing cues are stunning—everything I’d hoped for.

Dive in and enjoy!

2 Likes

The statement from TIDAL clearly says that they are “introducing” it for free. You know, like one of the biggest lies we all know about.

It just depends on how you read it.
They are Introducing it. Fact.
It’s Free to premium subscribers. Another fact.
Nothing is said about future plans.

1 Like

I’ve been long awaiting a solution to use both ROON and MQA on my MSB Dac V with network renderer.

Roon decoding sounds like a good partial solution - since MSB are at this time implementing MQA decoding only through quad-USB input.

But this doesn’t help with ROON, since MSB won’t read the RAAT standard. Hoping for MSB to go RoonReady, but don’t know when/if…

I really like the network renderer, and don’t really want to have to go USB unless I have to…

Do I have any worthwhile options??

Have you contacted the DAC manufacturers about Roon.
Roon are happy to work with willing manufacturers. They need a unit, I believe, to work on.
Ask the Roon people too.

General comment: Streaming is competitive, and several other streaming services have announced plans (or at least intentions) to add high-res. The only one that hasn’t, I think, is Spotify. In a competitive market, there may not be much pricing flexibility. I think we should be more worried that high-res streaming isn’t commercially viable than we are about its price (although prices do matter, certainly for me). I guess we’re about to find out.

Agreed, it would be a tragedy if the technology and willingness of record companies got to this stage only to be trumped by people’s expectation that everything should be free.
I don’t see Spotify changing its position, what do they care about music? That’s just a lowest common denominator type business as I see it. The product could be anything.
It depresses me when I see people harping on here about extending the free trial by using differant Addresses and the like over the cost of just paying for another month and deciding.
My advice to anyone interested is, if you just want it free, get Spotify and enjoy.
If you want quality you have to support the people who are delivering it. Right now that’s Roon and Tidal.
Thoughts, Chris

5 Likes

I couldn’t agree more. Free stuff is great but, for totally different reasons. I like to vote with my dollars; in my opinion ROON and TIDAL have earned my dollars. They have both followed through on promises and they both deliver premium products that have exceeded my expectations. To me that is a worthwhile pursuit and a bargain.

6 Likes

Agree.
Remember the observation, if you are not paying for the service, you are not a customer, you are the product.

10 Likes

Ooohhhhh I like that quote, I hope you don’t mind if I use that pearl of wisdom… Chris

I like that too… very profound.

I jut like MQA…loving all aspects of it, through Tidal, with software implementation, and through hardware implementation. Great to re-introduce myself to all of these great artists, albums and songs :heart_eyes: :blush: :joy:

1 Like

Saw this posted on the PSAudio MQA threads…thought it might help explain all this unfolding stuff…

1 Like

There are some great short videos with Bob Stuart on the MQA site and Hans Beukhausen (or however you spell it) video channel.
Well worth a little study.