Tidal VS Apple Music: Which One Is Better for You

Apple Music and Tidal are two of the leading players in the music streaming industry. Both the platforms offer exceptional sound quality and advanced feature. But which is the best music streaming platform in this Tidal vs Apple Music battle? To come to your rescue and help you make a sound decision, we have come up with an in-depth comparison. Keep reading below to know more.

Part 1. The Comparison between Tidal and Apple Music

This section compares different features offered by both the platforms and help you know which is best among Apple Music vs Tidal.

1. Apple Music vs Tidal: Sound Quality

First things first! We will directly jump to the Apple Music vs Tidal sound quality. Audio quality is an essential factor when it comes to these two services. To begin with, Apple Music has Dolby Atmos up its sleeves along with Apple Music Lossless audio. The streaming platform offers tracks in in ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) and AAC, among which AAC comes with a bit rate of 256 kbps and 128 kbps. On the other hand, ALAC comes with 2304–9216 kbps and 1141 kbps bitrates.

In comparison, Tidal lossless audio is provided in FLAC, AAC, and WAV formats for its different audio genres including Tidal 360 Reality Audio, Tidal Dolby Atmos, Tidal Master, and Tidal HiFi. Amongst those, Tidal lossless audio has bit rate of 1141 kbps for FLAC, 160 and 320 kbps for AAC, and 2304–9216 kbps for FLAC and WAV.

2. Tidal VS Apple Music: Music Content

Apart from the Tidal vs Apple Music lossless audio quality, users must also look at the music content offered by both the platforms. Apple Music has almost 50 million songs, which comprises albums from famous artists including Taylor Swift, Drake, Frank Ocean, Britney Spears, and more. This offers users a huge list of music tracks to enjoy. On the other hand, Apple Music has put a restriction to save music for offline listening. Users can download almost 100000 songs to their Apple Library. But the major advantage of using this platform is its iCloud integration. This enables users you to sync their saved music using the same Apple ID to any Apple device.

On the other hand, Tidal has an even bigger music library. It comes with almost 60 million songs that comprises of several popular artists own equity in Tidal. Users get exclusive music right from the studio of their favorite artist, including Jack White, Rihanna, Prince, Beyoncé, and Kayne West. With Tidal streaming rates, users can download Tidal HiFi and MQA music. Tidal also provides 250,000 videos that include live performances, music videos, documentaries, and movies related to the production of music audios. Also, Tidal X is a unique program provided by the platform that closes the gap between audiophiles and artists. The initiative offers users direct access to meetings, live shows, live streams, and even allows them to purchase live concert tickets.

3. Tidal VS Apple Music: Music Discovery

In this Apple Music vs. Tidal battle, Tidal is popular for having exceptional music discovery features that learns overtime. There are many implementations of its algorithmic suggestions, including the My Daily Discovery and My Mix playlists. These playlists are created majorly by actual human experts along with the algorithm. On the other hand, Apple Music also has somewhat same algorithmic playlists and a similar section named New Music Mix. This feature makes a playlist with new artists same to the ones users like. It does so by observing songs users have listened to, loved, added to their playlists, or downloaded.

One more similar feature that both services has is Stations. This allows users to create an auto-evolving playlist on the basis of a track or an artist. However, Tidal’s station feature is just awesome. It creates a relevant and massive playlist that users can instantly add to their library or download. Apple Music’s feature is a bit evolving. When creating a station for an artist, users only see two other tracks in the playlist.

Another discovery feature in this Apple lossless vs Tidal battle to consider is the live radio stations. On Apple Music, users can tune in to live radio shows and hear the music played by the host as users would with conventional radio. On the other hand, Tidal enables users to start live listening sessions where others users can listen and tune in to the same songs.

4. Apple Music vs Tidal: Subscriptions Plans and Price

The below table will help you compare the price and plan between Apple Music or Tidal. Have a look

5. Apple Music Lossless vs Tidal: Compatible Devices

Compatibility plays a major role in this Tidal vs Spotify vs Apple Music comparison. Apple Music an ecosystem based platform. It is compatible with Apple devices such as iPhone, Mac, Apple CarPlay, iPad, and wearables, as well as HomePod. In addition to this, it is available on some non-Apple devices such as Amazon Echo, Android, Apple TV, Samsung Smart TV, Sonos, Google Nest, and PlayStation 5, among others. Also, there is an AirPlay 2 for Apple Music users to cast Apple Music to supported devices.

On the other hand, Apple Music support streaming Lossless audio only on Android and Apple products rather than on Windows PC and other systems devices. Also, the Apple Music app for PC is in beta and it only provides a previous version of the Apple Music app:

In comparison, Tidal is available on most devices including iPhone, Apple TV, Windows, Android, Amazon Echo devices, Yamaha, Roku, Bluesound, and more. Users can visit the web page to check if their device is compatible or not. Same as Spotify Connect and AirPlay 2, Tidal Connect allows users to play Tidal music directly on compatible devices.

Part 2. Which One Is Better: Tidal or Apple Music

This side by side comparison between Tidal or Apple Music highlights some of the noteworthy differences between the two music-streaming platforms. Hence, choosing either of the platforms must be based on users’ personal preference since these two services are very close together. Below points will show you a big picture of the features provided by both the platforms.

Part 3. All-in-one Tool to Download Tidal/Apple Music Songs for Offline Playback?

Wanna save your songs forever in case you cancel the subscription someday? HitPaw Video Converter is a professional tool that can be used to download playlists, songs, and albums from Tidal/Apple Music and convert them to common formats such as FLAC, MP3, WAV, and M4A. You can download Tidal music at 120X speed with ID3 tags.

• Downloaded Tidal/Apple Music songs, albums, playlists, and podcasts
• Convert downloaded music to MP3, M4A, FLAC, and WAV
• Keep Master & HiFi audio quality and ID3 tags
• Download music to lossless FLAC (WAV) or 320kbps MP3
• Remove DRM protection of Apple Music, iTunes music
• Up to 120X faster music downloading and conversion speed

You can get songs downloaded on your computer directly and transfer them to any device for offline listening. Follow the below steps to know how to use this tool to download Tidal music.

• Step 1: Launch HitPaw and select TIDAL Converter on the main page.

  

• Step 2: Open TIDAL on a browser and sign in with your account. Copy the link of the song, playlist, or album. Paste the TIDAL link in the HitPaw search box and tap Analysis option.

  

• Step 3:Once the analysis is done, all songs are listed on the screen.

  

• Step 4: Users can select to convert the tracks to FLAC, MP3, WAV, and M4A. Lastly, tap Convert All to begin converting music from Tidal to computer.

  

Conclusion

In short, we just had a look at an in-depth comparison between Tidal vs Apple Music. In addition to this, we also had a look at HitPaw Video Converter that can download playlists, songs, and albums from Tidal/Apple Music and convert them to common formats such as FLAC, MP3, WAV, and M4A.