Tidal vs Qobuz - Genre Composition - Roon's Service Selection

I’ve been running both Tidal and Qobuz for a year or so now. Been with Tidal for probably at least 3 years, if not more.

I will more than likely be dropping Tidal soon, for several reasons…

  1. When I do a album search in Roon for Qobuz, it usually defaults to the Tidal album instead, which actually kind of pisses me off because then I have to go and select the Qobuz version. If I wanted the Tidal version, I would have been set up in Tidal already in Roon.

  2. When I pull up an album, it sometimes only shows one or two tracks available in the Tidal version, though going to the Qobuz version, it has all of the tracks.

  3. 95% of the new albums that are loaded into Tidal every week is rap, hip-hop and modern R&B, none of which I could care less about. Very rarely do they upload classical or jazz, or older pop/rock from the 60’s through early 2000’s that I like.

  4. 99.99% of the time, the Qobuz version sounds better than the Tidal version, no matter what the album or genre.

This just isn’t true, mate.

A good majority of albums uploaded every week, it is true. I see it on my screen. For roughly every five rap albums, there’s maybe one or two jazz or classical albums uploaded.

It isn’t, sorry. Browsing new releases by genre will tell you it isn’t.

Anyhow, I’m not derailing my own thread with this so, let’s leave it there.

How does this perceived ratio of “jazz/classical as % of rap/hip-hop/R&B/indie rock” differ for Qobuz? I ask because I have really eclectic musical taste.

Well, my own listening preferences tend to be near 98% classical and Jazz. I very very rarely can’t find an album on Tidal which another Roonie mentions on the forum from Qobuz. I don’t complain about the breadth of available music, but rather that still a sizable portion of the available albums is AAC only.

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Tidal pretty much has everything new and old that Qobuz does, but just more difficulty finding it. Just like Qobuz in Roon, one needs to go into the different genres to see what’s new and not rely on the main what’s new splash page. It’s a really annoying ‘feature’ of Roon that one has to do this. I will say, on Tidal the main curation is directed towards the hip/hop crowd but one just needs to work around it if going with Tidal.

Seriously don’t because I don’t want this to disappear down another f’ing “Jay-Z ate my hamster” hole.

Not gonna argue about it…

That’s a Roon thing. My home page in Tidal app gives me stuff that’s relevant. It’s annoying that Roon ignores all the personalisation you get with using the native app. To say Tidal is hip hop centric is just so wrong. But what it does do is showcase the most prominent music genre in the world as its shop front, but it has every music taste their is, unlike the tidal app Roon shows you the default shop front and not the custom one the app builds for you when you use it. Just like Spotify and others it curates your tastes, Roon just chooses to ignore this.

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Do you miss the ‘New Releases for You’ section on the overview page?

Your joking it’s hopeless, it’s hardly never given me anything worthwhile and when it does suggest something good I had already found it myself by going through new releases manually as I do every week. It’s Roons worst Valance based feature it constantly recommends music I dont listen to or have added already.

Regrettably that’s my experience, too. I listen 98% to classical music and Jazz, and on the recommended new releases section I get 90% Pop and Rock…

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I have one Metallica album in my collection and it thinks I really like metal. For me at one stage it was also recommending every classical release when I hade very little and barely played any. Not that I have more and listen more to it thanks to a it of your posts it doesnt. It’s all kind of wrong.

On the other hand, the albums recommended while listening to an album are very much on spot and worthwhile to explore. I can’t understand why the recommended new releases on Fridays are so contrary to my listening habits…

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I must say i find this as well. “Recommended for you” usually comes up with interesting picks but “new releases for you” much less focussed and radio not varied or adventurous enough for my tastes.

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Yes I agree but these inconsistencies with Valance are annoying.

I have both Tidal and Qobuz. I see no evidence that Tidal uploads more “rap” and/or “hip hop” music than any other type. I think if you go to the Tidal website or use their “Tidal Connect” app you will probably find that these new additions are presented more prominently. My guess is because this is new music as opposed to recycled, remastered and re-issued old music. All the music is there though. I find Tidal and Qobuz to be mostly redundant with a few exceptions. Sound quality varies. Even on my fairly highly resolving system I can seldom reliably tell a difference between the two services. Both are excellent sources for streamed music.