Decision Time Tidal or Spotify?

[nicus90]

Same here using Apple Music over Bluetooth, looking forward to see the app integrated. I don’t think for Rivian engineers will be a lot of effort compared with benefits to us, probably they are actively looking into it (hope so).

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[srnyoung]

We aren’t done with the 3 month trial of Tidal yet but it’s growing on me. Definitely need to set up playlists on a computer as was mentioned. After that it does a better and better job recommending other music for us.
Also keeping our legacy YouTube Music sub for the downloaded tunes. Hard to call this an adventure vehicle when the fancy sound system relies on cell phone signal…

 

[WSea]

We aren’t done with the 3 month trial of Tidal yet but it’s growing on me. Definitely need to set up playlists on a computer as was mentioned. After that it does a better and better job recommending other music for us.
Also keeping our legacy YouTube Music sub for the downloaded tunes. Hard to call this an adventure vehicle when the fancy sound system relies on cell phone signal…

There’s always a workaround. Off roading over the weekend half the route didn’t have mobile service so I just switched over to downloaded music in tidal app.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

Let us know what you think when you get the update.

Got the update, last night. This is still 100% broken. No Alexa commands work with Tidal.

 

[daeHelkcunK]

Tidal sound quality is far superior. It would be even better if Rivian choses to offer MQA with the decoder necessary for it. Comparing Tidal to Spotify is almost like comparing FM radio to AM. Having my home Tidal library available is really nice. It does take a while to compile a significant playlist.

 

[Bearmountain]

So, I'm nearing the end of my 2 month trial for Tidal. I haven't tried Spotify yet because I'm happy with the sound quality and library on Tidal (albeit integration and buffering issues do drive me crazy). Seems like integration is an issue with other services but I haven't seen muich related to buffering (just today, it took five minutes for Tidal to play a song that I selected that was about five down the list of a mix created by Tidal).

So before I go all in on Tidal I'd like to see what people are going with for music. (I didn't include Tunein since it doesn't provide specific song selection)

They should have xm satellite so you can get stuff without having the internet which is very spotty when your adventuring our out of the city's.

 

[the_mace]

Im not a huge Audiophile, I just want a mix of music for my genre. Rivian has a 12 month free trial for TuneIn going on, and that's mostly what I listen to right now. In the truck that works pretty well (except for album art which is oddly out of sync with the song). Problem is TuneIn premium doesnt work on my mobile devices. Desktops and Truck yes, mobile no. They cant figure it out and from interacting with them i'm not sure i'd give them any money.

I had a 6 month free trial of Apple Music. It was ok, but odd integration with your library, Tesla support for it was mediocre and its pricey and limited to 1 user.

Spotify I used my daughters for a bit but it was stream limited so had to stop.

Amazon Music I get free with prime. They sort of broke it a while back but generally that's my fall back for add free streaming music in a genre. Unfortunately none of the cars seem to support it so then its a bluetooth connection.

When my TuneIn expires in the Rivian i'll likely go back to Amazon prime music since I have it with no extra subscriptions and its good enough and free.

 

[quartz]

You can get Tidal sub for 40-50% off if you are student, teacher, first responder, vet, etc. $11/mo for studio quality sound is hard to beat. The only thing I like about Spotify more is their daily/weekly mix selections, which can be jarring on Tidal if you listen to a wide variety of genres.

 

[Timothykf]

Spotify and Bluetooth. I didn’t even bother with the TunedIn after the software update that required a CC. I don’t personally like when a mfg tries to lock out their systems to other services - I have pandora, sirusXM and Web broadcast on my phone

 

[240vPlug]

A vote for Tidal

 

[foxerson]

In the minority here with a vote for Amazon Music. Admittedly that it just because I already committed to a family plan so that my wife and two daughters can stream whatever they want from Amazon Echo devices at home.

Might need to take a closer look at tidal though…

 

[RWerksman]

I use Pandora either via BT or via Alexa -- although Alexa seems to be a dumpster fire right now.

I've used Tidal in the past, and while the music quality is significantly better, and it's a better service for artists, I find that the recommendation engine on Pandora is the killer part of the service. The ability to thumbs up or down songs and, and to tune individual stations for favorites or deep cuts is really excellent. Add in the pre-defined stations that can expand on it's original programing using the same algorithm, and I just find myself listening to it more often and for longer.

I'd love to have an app for it. You know, like on CarPlay or Android Auto.

 

[JamesPolk24]

Tidal has far better bitrate but doing blind side by side versus Spotify with the Meridian system, it's actually very difficult to distinguish which is which. So yes, it's better on paper for sound quality but in reality the difference is barely perceptible. The fact the Tidal UX is garbage to me at the moment, I will continue to use Spotify.

 

[OldGoat]

Well it appears to be a two horse race. For many, the choice seems to come down to the path of least resistance, i.e., 'I was already using X, so I'll stick with X, shortcomings be damned', as opposed to some compelling argument of X versus Y. I'm hoping Rivian integration down the road will help settle the issue.

 

[Ventura]

I'm Apple Music via bluetooth. It's easy to change music with verbal commands through my phone and I'm already a subscriber. I can also use Siri to play anything I'm in the mood for at any time, again with a simple voice command. My only problems is that I tend to say play when what I want to do is shuffle.

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