The theoretical outcries from millions of streaming music listeners have been acknowledged… finally. Apostasy is a necessity, but by converting to the recently-unveiled TIDAL, users of Spotify and its less popular brethren will no longer have to endure the aural and mental anguish imparted by audio quality that’s slightly less than perfect. I’m commuting to my day job, and as I stream Bee Thousand through my iPhone and attached $500 pair of earphones, I can’t help but wonder what it would sound like if I knew that I was listening to lossless. Will I make the lo-fi-ness more apparent? Will I be able to hear an extra “s” as Robert Pollard tells me to “speed up” and “sslow down”?
A wealth of actual evidence suggests otherwise! But depending on your source equipment (or whether you’re really that adamant an audiophile), you may be interested to know that the brand new TIDAL service attests to 25 million songs, all of which are in CD-quality FLAC and ALAC formats. Contrast those formats with the 320 kbps MP3s that streaming services commonly offer you at max, and you have something that’s technically better — and essentially the best — quality. But again, we’re basically talking about how superhuman your ears are… plus, whether or not the perhaps totally imagined discernible difference in quality is worth the extra cash. $19.99/month is twice the price of Spotify Premium. Maybe the Norway-based Aspiro/WiMP are ahead of the trend? I can think of worse things to get behind.