It’s an open secret that the music listening landscape has drastically changed. Gone are the days when you had to buy and keep a massive collection of music CDs or DVDs. But thanks to music streaming sites, you can now access your favorite music playlist, album, and latest releases effortlessly. Good examples of such platforms are Amazon Music and Tidal. While Amazon music boasts of a plethora of compatible devices like the Amazon Fire TV and Alexa-powered speakers, Tidal comes with an impressive bit rate of 320Kbps.
Today, in this Amazon Music vs Tidal comparison article, we’ll take a look at some of their features to help you make an informed choice.
Features | Tidal | Amazon Music |
Monthly Charges
| Personal account: $9.99 Up to 5 member family accounts: $14.99 Student Plan: $4.99 Tidal HiFi: $19.99 | Personal account: $9.99 Up to 6 member family accounts: $14.99 Student plan: $4.99
|
Free Trial | 30 days | 30 days |
Offline Listening | YES, for paid users only | YES, for paid users only |
Availability | Up to 54 countries | Up to 28 countries |
Music Library
| 40 million-plus licensed tracks | 50 million-plus licensed tracks
|
Audio Quality | Up to 1.411Mbps in FLAC and up to 320Kbps in AAC | Up to 256Kbps in AAC |
Supported OS | Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android | Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android |
To begin with, none of these programs offer free tiers, although you’ll get a free 30-day trial period. They also have very affordable monthly subscriptions with Tidal HiFi having a slightly higher price but with better audio quality. Amazon Music Prime members will pay $7.99/month, whereas the Non-Prime members will pay $9.99/month. Tidal Premium, on the other hand, costs $9.99/month. The Student Plans on both of these platforms are also similar at $4.99/month. However, you’ll have to re-verify your identity every 12 months.
But it’s the Tidal HiFi, which comes with high fidelity lossless audio that sets these two services apart. Just keep in mind that you’ll have to part with $19.99 for this service. On a bright note, you can stream music up to a mind-boggling bit rate of 1411Kbps. So when it comes to Tidal vs Amazon Music price comparison, Tidal offers more flexible plans.
The music catalog is another vital feature to look at when searching for the perfect music streaming site. With that in mind, Amazon Music Unlimited claims to offer over 50 million tracks and lots of stations. That is around 10 million more than what Tidal offers. But to Tidal’s defense, having over 40 million song titles is nothing to laugh about. All in all, you should always settle for a music streaming site with a more extensive music library.
The audio quality is an important feature that you should never be overlooked. Although Tidal has its fair share of short comings, none of it can be attributed to its sound quality.That’s because Tidal allows users to stream music at an impressive 320Kbps bit rate in AAC, unlike Amazon Music’s 256Kbps. And if you subscribe to the Tidal HiFi, you can stream music at a bit rate of up to 1.411Mbps with the lossless FLAC format. With this kind of streaming, not even the industry-leading Spotify can come close to Tidal. Therefore, in the Amazon Music vs Tidal sound quality comparison, Tidal is the clear winner.
Amazon Music Unlimited web player and app have a dedicated section that serves up playlists and albums. The music on offer depends on your listening habits. Recently, Amazon Music made some significant redesigns on the app that makes music discovery even a lot easier.
Tidal banks on its partnership with top music stars, like Jay Z, Kanye West, Rihanna, Beyoncé, etc. to stay ahead of the competition. This means that you’ll be the first to receive the latest releases from these artists.
Tidal also offers curated playlists handcrafted by these artists as well as Tidal’s editors’ playlists like the famous “Future vs Young Thug.” It’s because of these features that Tidal slightly edges out Amazon music in the Tidal vs Amazon Music Unlimited music discovery comparison.
Amazon Music boasts of an iOS and Android app, making it easily accessible on both smartphones and tablets. It doesn’t stop there, though, because you can also access the platform on either Windows or Mac computer via its desktop app or web player. And as you’d expect, you can access Amazon Music Unlimited on Echo devices bar Google Assistant. You can direct the Alexa to play your favorite songs or search by lyric, artist, mood, or decade.
Tidal is also no pushover in this regard. They recently released their updated desktop apps for both Mac and PC. The changes include integration with Ticketmaster, more inclusive search function, and support for media keys. They also have very intuitive iOS and Android apps.
Tidal is compatible with Roku, Apple TV, Android TV, CarPlay, and Amazon Fire TV. Although this is quite impressive, I’d go for the Amazon Music due to its compatibility with most top-class smart speakers.
Fortunately, both of these music streaming sites offer users the all-important offline listening option. This way, you can download and listen to your favorite tracks on your device without a data connection. On the flip side, you’ll get a time limit on the number of audios you can listen to offline.
Lucky for you, it’s now possible to download your Tidal tracks, playlists, and albums, thanks to the Tidal Music Converter. For Amazon Music users, you can use the best tool that named Audio Converter for Mac. With these sophisticated audio converters, you can download and convert your tracks to popular formats like MP3, FLAC, AAC, M4A, and many more. You can then proceed to share them with your friends and family.
Final Verdict
Both of these music streaming sites are exemplary in what they offer. In fact, it might boil down to your personal preferences. However, the Tidal HiFi vs Amazon Music audio quality comparison is a pretty one-sided race. That’s because Tidal offers better sound quality, but at a steep price. Therefore, it’s vital that you thoroughly analyze your needs and budget before deciding on the two platforms. And of course, this article should help you with that.
If you want to check more info about Apple music vs Tidal, go through: Apple Music vs Tidal