TIDAL to add 'millions' of Master Quality (MQA) Tracks

Press release:

November 12, 2020 (New York, NY) – Today, global music and entertainment streaming platform, TIDAL, added millions of tracks in MQA from Warner Music Group to its Masters catalogue. TIDAL, in partnership with MQA (Master Quality Authenticated), provides guaranteed delivery of the original sound recording with TIDAL Masters. Now music fans can listen to an expanded Masters catalogue, featuring iconic albums from artists such as The Notorious B.I.G., Missy Elliott, LCD Soundsystem, Madonna and more.

MQA, led by Bob Stuart, who this year became the first audio engineer to receive the Prince Philip Award from the Royal Academy of Engineering, has pioneered an entirely new way of coding digital audio based on key insights into how humans hear. Key to the technology is MQA’s built-in authentication to confirm that the listener is getting the exact sound created in the studio. Additionally, MQA addresses the issue that when analogue sound is turned into digital, the process introduces time-smearing artefacts that blur sounds unnaturally. MQA solves these problems, and then the MQA decoder in the TIDAL app ensures the conversion back to analogue preserves the music’s pristine clarity.

Bob Stuart, MQA Founder, explained, “By paying great attention to the nature of sound and the way we hear, MQA opens a clear window and delivers all the detail and nuance of the original song. The music industry’s catalogue contains millions of significant performances from the early days of CD where, sometimes, the recording was created in 44.1kHz 16bit and where no alternative existed. We are delighted that Warner Music Group is bringing this content to TIDAL.”

“TIDAL Masters offer the best sound available. As consumers’ expectations of high-quality experiences increase, TIDAL’s audio innovation sets the bar for music listening,” said Lior Tibon, TIDAL COO. “Not only can members hear music exactly as their favourite artists recorded it, but with recent platform enhancements, the experience is as seamless as ever."

In response to listeners’ requests to make it easier to listen to and discover more Masters tracks, TIDAL has added ‘Master Edition’ Artist Radio and Track Radio. TIDAL members can listen to radio stations in the best quality available containing Masters only songs, uninterrupted. In conjunction, TIDAL is adding the Master Edition of My New Arrivals, a personalized playlist of new music in full master quality audio, based on their listening habits, for members. Using less bandwidth, MQA technology packages and delivers master quality audio to music fans making MQA files accessible to listeners on-the-go, with any headphones.

To further support a harmonious listening experience, TIDAL recently launched the “Connect” feature, which allows users to stream music from its HiFi tier directly to connected devices, including: Bluesound, Cambridge Audio, DALI, KEF, iFi audio, Lyngdorf, Monitor, NAD, and Naim Audio. Through TIDAL Connect, the platform’s unparalleled lossless audio quality can now be seamlessly experienced on members’ favourite devices at the touch of a button. For more information on how to connect, visit TIDAL.com/Connect

TIDAL offers the largest MQA catalogue outside of China. In addition, TIDAL offers music lovers unlimited access to its extensive catalogue of over 70 million tracks across all genres; thousands of expertly curated playlists by TIDAL’s seasoned editorial team; and endless artist radio stations.

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The more options the better!!

Any idea to add these as a Radio Station in Roon?

Cheers
NOA

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You need to create a playlist. If you can use Tidal Connect it’s the way to go and more simple.

Just think: millions of tracks, all of which have now been Authenticated! @danny will be so happy!

And, just think of the resources Warner must have devoted to this. How long does it take to track down the performers (after all, it’s the “artist-approved” version of a song), recording engineers, etc. to perform the Authentication on an album? I have to admit being hazy on the details. But still, they must have many teams of Authentication technicians working on this, in order to Authenticate so many tracks! In the midst of a pandemic, too. What dedication!

People knock AT&T all the time, but this action by a subsidiary really gives the lie to those aspersions. Here they are, spending oodles of time and money, just to get us, the listening public, some maybe slightly marginally perhaps better versions of some music. That’s service! What a company!

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I actually laughed out loud.

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Fantastic addition. Wasn’t that long ago that folks were predicting the demise of Tidal. Listening to a playlist now on an end-to-end Meridian digital system with full MQA unfolding and it’s exquisite

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What was funny?

Hi I noticed the Tidal app got these new shiny MQA playlists too. Are you listening to Tidal native app? Coz I cant find those in Roon! I need Roon to EQ my HPs in Bit Perfect (Sorta…) mode and since Roon sounds way better than my Tidal app over Windows PC to USB DAC. Windering if thats an observation for many…It why I got the Lifetime Roon last month :sweat_smile:

Like it in Tidal, then sync Tidal in Roon. I definitely would not want Roon adding every Tidal playlist in Roon.

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Yes, that’s how I’m doing it

See my reply below

Consider they also gave this medal to Ron Dennis. Stuart is a naïf by comparison.

This might have already been in MQA but I just listened to it; terrific!

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Awesome news :sunglasses:

I never use playlist and only listen to full albums followed by Roon Radio. Today I listened to a Tidal Rolling Stones playlist in MQA followed by a Jazz Vocals playlist in MQA. I thoroughly enjoyed both.

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A well curated playlist can be as good as an album

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From all the streaming services I try, Tidal playlist are the more interesting.

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If it matters to you, before you start receiving Roon updates for TIDAL album format, I recommend Focusing on all TIDAL MQA albums currently in your library and adding them all to a “Pre MQA Upgrade” tag. That way, if any content already in your library is changed from CD to MQA, you’ll be able to figure out what it is.

You need to do this now.

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On all tidal mqa or non mqa?