Starting April 10, 2024, you will now get access to our music library in full lossless, HiRes FLAC, and Dolby Atmos sound for the same price you pay today of $10.99 (plus applicable sales tax)/month.
This is because we’re making it easier for everyone to enjoy best-in-class sound quality by combining our HiFi and HiFi Plus tiers into a single subscription tier called TIDAL.
As far as I can tell this is not a special offer or promotion but available to everyone. The website still shows the current HiFi and HiFi Plus plans but maybe it will update on April 10.
For Roon to work it’s magic , they need a deep and constant download of details from the streaming service db , So far AFAIK, Apple have declined , offering only the standard API which is insufficient for Roon
Don’t forget also the absence of something like Tidal (Apple) Connect makes streaming Apple Music to a conventional streamer a real pain. Roon would circumvent that of course.
The only way I can do it is via an iPad then via a USB>Coax converted (my streamer has no USB input) simply not worth the effort, Tidal covers my needs
From what I’ve read Apple also makes it a clunky and inconvenient process to download music for offline listening.
I suppose they want to retain their walled garden but seems like they are making Apple music a tougher sell to non-apple platforms. Which is a shame because Apple music is the only service with strong classical music support and also wide support of the other genres.
I prefer the HiRes music. Two years ago I compared them while Tidal had MQA. Using my UAPP app, i had both Tidal & Qobuz accounts. At that time, Tidal always showed inferior bitrates than I saw for the same song on Qobuz…could have been the MQA bitrate was inferior or was not allowing me to see if it was superior . And since Qobuz was far cheaper, I switched. Now maybe it comes down to how much of the music I like is available in HiRes on Tidal/Qobuz. At the former $20/mo it wasnt worth it JZ. Thanks to competition we all benefit!
I am in South Africa, Qobuz isn’t an option here , so Tidal it is.
I use Tidal to preview new classical releases as per the Gramophone magazine and even with minor labels I rarely get a release that’s not there.
I tried Apple Classical for a while , but to my mind they have really butchered Primephonics original software. Add that to the connection issue as mentioned and it’s a no go at the moment
The incompatibility of anything but Qobuz & Tidal is exactly the thing that has stopped me from going all in with the lifetime Roon plan. If Spotify ever releases their hi-res tier it’s going to kill both Qobuz & Tidal and Roon will be rendered useless for streaming anything other than local files.
Same - on tracks/albums where there is any audible difference, I typically prefer Qobuz. I also have a bad taste in my mouth from paying $20 for Tidal before Qobuz came along AND Tidal deleting all of my favorites and custom playlists not just once but TWICE. And so I canceled Tidal a long time ago and went all in with Qobuz. Recently, with MQA on the outs and Tidal reportedly moving to flac, I’ve re-subbed because Tidal’s electronica catalog is substantially better than Qobuz’s… and now with the price reduction I have to ask if it’s really worth it to keep Qobuz at all anymore. Tidal definitely has things in their catalog that Qobuz doesn’t, but I do not think the reverse is true at all. I guess it comes down to how much better you think it SOUNDS and if that’s worth an extra monthly subscription.
I like ROON for it’s discovery and database, even if I often read the WIKI versions. But I didn’t go all in on lifetime ROON because well, if a company isn’t well over 25 years old and thriving, I don’t trust that I’ll get a lifetime of use. Now if JNJ gave a lifetime band-aid sub…
With the price reduction, I might go back to TIDAL, but I had become disgusted with MQA. Never cared that much for Spotify, no matter how much people say they like the interface. It was and is ho-hum compared to using ROON.