Music Streaming Services

Discussion in 'Computer Audiophile: Software, Configs, Tools' started by rott, Feb 22, 2017.

  1. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    MFiT was basically branding, the guidelines for it are standard good mastering practices. And Apple never enforced them, sadly. If they had, MFiT masterings would be generally superior to other releases because the guidelines are all good practices. There are a few unique MFiT masterings that are unavailable elsewhere and do sound better than the other versions. I’m hoping a switch to lossless makes those masterings available at 16/44 or above.
     
  2. bixby

    bixby Friend

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    Any Aussie Tidal users?

    Saw the new Tidal tier that excludes MQA Masters. link

    Today in the US with the top plan I see many new releases as well as some older that are Master Only, the exception being when there is a Deluxe version with 1-3 more tracks and that is usually offered in regular CD quality.

    My question is, for this new tier, will all of those releases that I see as master only now be offered as CD quality or does all of it go away. I think I know the answer, that it will be CD quality.

    It begs the question for US users who do not want to listen to anything MQA, how do we get the CD version?
     
  3. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    This is awesome news and may save Tidal for many of us! They won’t not offer certain music, they will offer it in regular FLAC CD quality instead which is all any of our DACs accept anyways.

    very cool. f**k MQA
     
  4. Metro

    Metro Friend

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    You can't. Audiophiles online have been dissecting and analyzing this to death, but it's all very simple.
    • Premium tier (320 Kbps) will be unchanged
    • The current HiFi tier will be renamed to HiFi Plus, otherwise unchanged
    • The new mid price HiFi tier will be the same as HiFi Plus and using the same files, except that the MQA flag is disabled when streamed so they can't be unfolded.
    Tidal will not be streaming separate MQA and original CD versions. The new tier is simply a quick and easy way for Tidal to introduce a lower price to compete with the upcoming Spotify HiFI (and rumored Apple HiFi).

    BTW, I don't remember where I saw this but a music publisher said that Tidal is no longer allowing two versions (e.g. both MQA and non-MQA) of the same album. A publisher can only submit one version to Tidal. So if the album on Tidal is MQA, it will be the only one available.
     
    Last edited: May 8, 2021
  5. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    oh bugger. Asshats.
     
  6. bixby

    bixby Friend

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    thanks for the input, lot clearer now.
     
  7. Metro

    Metro Friend

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    edit: @purr1n already started a thread: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...-music-announces-lossless-mqa-is-toast.11002/

    Announcement today from Apple:
    https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/05/apple-music-announces-spatial-audio-and-lossless-audio/

    Available next month, at no extra cost. Huge implications for the future of Tidal, Qobuz, and Roon.

    Lossless Audio

    Apple Music will also make its catalog of more than 75 million songs available in Lossless Audio. Apple uses ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) to preserve every single bit of the original audio file. This means Apple Music subscribers will be able to hear the exact same thing that the artists created in the studio.

    To start listening to Lossless Audio, subscribers using the latest version of Apple Music can turn it on in Settings > Music > Audio Quality. Here, they can choose different resolutions for different connections such as cellular, Wi-Fi, or for download. Apple Music’s Lossless tier starts at CD quality, which is 16 bit at 44.1 kHz (kilohertz), and goes up to 24 bit at 48 kHz and is playable natively on Apple devices. For the true audiophile, Apple Music also offers Hi-Resolution Lossless all the way up to 24 bit at 192 kHz.​
     
    Last edited: May 17, 2021
  8. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    Man I wish streaming services had better artist radio stations. They’re sooooo bad. I pulled up a Townes Van Zandt station just now on Spotify. He’s influenced every folk and country musician with half a brain since he started making music in the 70’s. But the station has with a few exceptions like 5 artists on it repeated over and over.

    Jason Isbell (f'ing duh!)
    Lucinda Williams (another duh)
    Steve Earl (no shit)
    Justin Townes Earl (uhhhh he was named after the guy)
    Drive By Truckers (not similar musically and very obvious)

    I could tear apart every radio station the same way. Thing is these services have more artist connections in their database. If you go to “similar artists” there’s way more listed. Why aren’t they on the station instead of repeating the most obvious choices over and over?

    And why is the host artist included? If I wanted to listen to Townes I would. And I would listen to one of his albums. Maybe I don’t want the same things from these stations as other people, but I want it to be a discovery tool. I want stuff like Townes. And no repeats.

    fuckin hell what am I paying for.
     
  9. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    Wasn’t that Pandora’s claim to fame? Really smart algorithmically generated playlists? I just use Radio Paradise when I want something interesting, but obviously it won’t work if you want to hear something specific.
     
  10. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    Yeah I wanted Pandora to be that but they didn’t have enough money for a good enough library to dig from. So it was again...repetitive.
     
  11. bixby

    bixby Friend

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    Any free tier streaming service that offers download for offline listening, even if mp3 and/or with ads?

    Losing access to Tidal family plan and not interested in plans that require data use when on the go.

    I suspect there are not any. Might be great excuse to load up lots of my collection that rarely gets ear time and get great sound with UAPP.
     
  12. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

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    Is there a streaming service with a 5 star rating system, or something more than like and dislike? I could live with dislike, like, and love.

    Also, any of them have smart playlist? For example, search for Rock with 4 stars (my rating) or better, and it's a dynamic playlist?
     
  13. k1arg

    k1arg Facebook Friend

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    Probably not what you want, but Roon (plus qobuz/tidal) can do a bit of this, poorly. If you create a "tag" that you apply to everything that you yourself rate, and then use roon's "focus" search, you can select everything you rated 4 or higher. It is a pain to maintain the "my rating" tag. And pretty much any extension at all of those search criteria knocks the whole thing over.

    My impression is that this should work with Apple music, but last I tried there were bugs and dynamic playlists were not working for me.
     
  14. bixby

    bixby Friend

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    I have been suffering with the free version of youtube music on my pc and added it to my phone for listening to stuff sent to my bedroom Amazon speaker for late night listening.

    The computer version seems to have no ads (I am logged into the Googosphere all day anyway) that I recall but the sources for an album are from videos, user uploads, etc. Quality is all over the map. Some tracks are really crappy.

    On the phone (Android) version, it will play your album only after playing an ad and then random ads blurt out in a few more tracks. Not conducive to late night listening.

    My question is two fold for the paid version, which I assume they have a short trial.

    1. Are the sources for album tracks all random like the free version or are they proper lossy audio only?

    2. Will the phone version play the proper tracks as stated in #1 above without ads?

    Should I be looking at some other service that is cheap but reliable? Not needing this for full fidelity only music discovery mainly.

    I did compare Apple and Amazon on free trials with my phone less than a year ago. Amazon handily sounded better on the albums I compared. And of course Spotify is pure trash for the free version, is the paid better?

    Thoughts and advice based on personal experience is appreciated.
     
  15. Qildail

    Qildail Friend

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    I am a holdover from the original YouTube Red (kids practically live on YT; they can listen to their favorite streams with phones in their pocket, etc.). Google took a pretty decent thing (Google Music) and buried it alive for... branding, I guess? I think YTM has a lot of growing up to do still [I sometimes forget we have it, because I do not personally use it].

    That being said...

    It maxes out at 256kb AAC, but you have to find the settings to set that for (for both wifi and cell if using their app).

    The paid version should be ad-free and also continue playing if the mobile app is closed.
     
  16. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    Tidal question-

    On my iPod touch 7, then l start to scroll, there is a little knob that appears on the right side of the screen so that I can quickly move through my library instead of having to flick over and over and over again. I have gotten to know the approximate position of this knob for various artists and I can find them fast.

    [​IMG]

    On the Tidal app on the Shanling M6 Pro 21, there's no knob like this. Which is a tittle thing, but make it so much more difficult to navigate and find music. Is this because the app is outdated, for is this a feature only available on the iOS app?
     
  17. Metro

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    It's something that needs to be programmed by the software engineer, and they have done it for their iOS app but not the Android app. It might have been an oversight, or perhaps easier to implement on iOS than on Android. You could contact Tidal customer service about it and hope that it will go into a future release.
     
  18. k4rstar

    k4rstar Britney fan club president

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    I am curious if anyone has done extensive testing between Apple Music and Tidal

    I have only ever used Tidal on the 'High' quality, as the 'Hi-fi' and above tiers had some obvious sound processing that I did not like. I recently got Airpods pro and a free trial of Apple Music so I've been going back and forth. today I did a blind test where I gave my sister my phone and a list of 5 tracks to randomly switch between both players, with a 10 second delay in between switches. I was able to correctly identify which was which every time. for my testing I specifically picked new releases which had no remasters or alternative masters of any kind. I also ensured that deliberate sound processing features such as EQ, volume normalization and spatial audio were disabled for both players.

    Apple Music sounds like it has a high-pass filter around 40hz, severely limiting bass fundamentals which kind of screws with the entire frequency spectrum of sound. it also has some added sparkle and spatiality, to the point where it sounds like a very different mix on some tracks. I preferred the relatively unprocessed tap water sound of Tidal on 'High'. the results were consistent whether listening with Airpods, a car stereo, or a high fidelity system.

    this is annoying - as Apple Music is a superior service in every other respect, and I wish I could cancel my Tidal subscription. just curious if anyone else has done a similar test and what your results were. I can't really blame Apple as I feel most consumers would express a clear preference for the processed sound of their service in short comparison testing.
     
  19. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    If I understand Tidal correctly, all their files are MQA encoded and you're not avoiding MQA by using the lower tier service. They're just giving you a file that has been "un MQA'ed" but the artifacts are still there.

    AFAIK there is no difference between the Master versions of albums and the non Master versions as far as avoiding MQA artifacts goes.
     
  20. bixby

    bixby Friend

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    Source of this info?
     

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