The name comes from an ancient bowed musical instrument called kobyz, which has two strings made of horsehair. Good no? That said, you'll get up to a 60% discount on your hi-res purchases if you do pay for its top-tier Sublime subscription, which includes on- and offline ad-free listening, a competitive catalog and all resolution clearly displayed. We want to be more Qobuz.Ĭase in point: the French music service offers any music lover the chance to rent and purchase hi-res music even if they don't subscribe. Qobuz is the friend who does things their own way and in their own time, or not at all. We like Qobuz. They're ferociously talented and admirably principled. You know the type, the slightly eccentric (possibly even headstrong) leader of the pack. If Qobuz was a member of your circle of friends, it would be the strong-minded one. While you won't find any AI DJs, bouncing-ball style lyrics in real time or niche mixes, you will find plenty of exclusive editorial content (created by actual humans), a clear design and easy-to-find hi-res playlists with full resolution transparency. Qobuz is a streaming service for the discerning listener who knows what they like and likes it in hi-res – maybe as downloadable digital albums bought at a discount on the Qobuz download store. Tidal also offers 50% off its HiFi and HiFi Plus plans to students, with the same 30-day free trial to check it out.ĭecidedly un-sociable with your music compared to rivals You might not notice a difference between Tidal and your music streaming service of choice here (because the file quality is capped), but plump for a paid-for subscription and you might soon realize what you’ve been missing out on. If you’re interested, start with the 30-day free trial (or, if you're lucky enough to live in the US, give Tidal's free tier, Tidal Free, a whirl). Tidal is one of the streaming services out there with lossless and high-res audio files that’ll do your love of music and top-notch audio set-up justice. Especially if you’ve already invested in the audio hardware – like a pair of the best noise-cancelling headphones. This will be a high price for some to pay, for others it’s a no-brainer. There are various ways to look at this our view is, Tidal's simply added another reason to choose it over Spotify.Īgain, although Tidal is better across the board, it’s the $19.99/£19.99 Tidal HiFi Plus streaming that makes the most sense and is the most significant jump in quality. That means if you take your listening more seriously, you and its MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) files could be a match made in heaven. That said, in an April 2023 Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), Tidal CEO Jesse Dorogusker revealed the streaming platform will soon be introducing hi-res FLAC audio to HiFi Plus members – likely a response to MQA filing for bankruptcy. The second is that listeners get a better deal too, thanks to superb CD-quality sound, especially if you’re willing to pay extra for Tidal’s highest-tier premium subscription, HiFi Plus. This means it gets a better deal (although not necessarily a great deal) for musicians, paying them higher than many services per stream. The first is that it’s billed as being artist-owned. These services can completely transform your listening experience, with millions of tracks at your fingertips and across all of your devices, streamed wirelessly, with playlist creation tools and personalized recommendations. Time marches on and today, the best music streaming services make music and podcasts more accessible than ever before. Gone are the days of downloading and organising extensive MP3 music collections (mostly – although some of us still have plenty of love for the iPod Classic).

We like 'em a lot…īecky Scarrott – Senior Staff Writer, Audio If you're a fan of classical music, Apple Music was our top recommendation thanks to Apple Music Classical until recently (also, check out Apple Music Sing after you've warmed up those vocal chords!) but now we've heard Qobuz and, well, we like those hi-res files and downloads. Many of its rivals now offer both CD-quality and hi-res streams. Tidal, Apple Music and Amazon Music HD still take the top three spots in our best music streaming services guide, because although Spotify is outrageously popular (and its newest AI DJ feature is proving just as much of a hit across the pond as it is in the US), it's still limited to lossy, compressed audio files.

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