Spotify - Tesla Account or Premium Account

[AnthonyLR]

Thanks - that's exactly what I wanted to know.

It's a great shame there isn't something that ticks all the boxes, which for me are :-
- high quality audio
- podcasts as well as music
- app in the car
- app on Android phone

I end up bluetooth-ing the phone for podcasts, which isn't such a hardship. Don't want to log in with personal Spotify for podcasts and lose the ability to play albums using the in-car account (even if the quality is reduced).

I know it does not tick all the boxes but Tidal sounds good in my M3 - just the standard £11 one

 

[Durzel]

I know it does not tick all the boxes but Tidal sounds good in my M3 - just the standard £11 one

You can get TIDAL cheaper by using a VPN, if you're interested. I was using Argentina for the longest time, and a HiFi Plus (the Master quality one) was less than £1.50 a month. Have switched to Malaysis at around £3/month but have been advised that Columbia or Nigeria are cheaper.

Same music, same quality, etc. The only thing I've seen is that the app notifications are in the "usual" language of the country, but they're easily disabled. The app, etc was in English.

The basic TIDAL was even cheaper..

 

[MrBadger]

Same music, same quality, etc.

It might not be same music.

I got given a free 3 month Tidal (partner) subscription which I didn’t realise at the time was linked to US Tidal.

Other than being billed in $, first I realised the implications was trying to access some Pink Floyd albums which were not available to me but were to a fellow Tidal member using UK version. This was down to licensing differences across regions/countries.

I did ask Tidal to swap me over but they said they couldn’t without starting again. They were not bothered about me getting a cheaper $ subscription and actively recommended that I kept it due to cost saving.

 

[_MJF_]

I know it does not tick all the boxes but Tidal sounds good in my M3 - just the standard £11 one

I can certainly understand why people go with Tidal for the sound quality, if it did podcasts then it'd be perfect for me, as would Spotify if the sound quality was better. Daft thing is I'm already paying for a Tidal and Spotify anyway - for kids.

For me my in-car listening is split three ways - stuff I've already bought on CD (ripped to high quality MP3s on USB stick), stuff I've not bought but might and often eventually do (currently in-car free Spotify but better sound would be nice), and podcasts (currently bluetooth from phone). I'd certainly pay for a solution that ticked all boxes.

 

[MonkeyTennis]

I can certainly understand why people go with Tidal for the sound quality, if it did podcasts then it'd be perfect for me, as would Spotify if the sound quality was better. Daft thing is I'm already paying for a Tidal and Spotify anyway - for kids.

For me my in-car listening is split three ways - stuff I've already bought on CD (ripped to high quality MP3s on USB stick), stuff I've not bought but might and often eventually do (currently in-car free Spotify but better sound would be nice), and podcasts (currently bluetooth from phone). I'd certainly pay for a solution that ticked all boxes.

I'm not into podcasts, but recently started using Apple Music for the cloud music library support. i.e., all my own CD rips, vinyl rips and random moderately obscure MP3s accessible via the same interface on all devices, including the Tesla.

 

[Rirawin]

You can get TIDAL cheaper by using a VPN, if you're interested. I was using Argentina for the longest time, and a HiFi Plus (the Master quality one) was less than £1.50 a month. Have switched to Malaysis at around £3/month but have been advised that Columbia or Nigeria are cheaper.

Same music, same quality, etc. The only thing I've seen is that the app notifications are in the "usual" language of the country, but they're easily disabled. The app, etc was in English.

The basic TIDAL was even cheaper..

Interesting, without derailing the thread I thought they had cracked down on this. Had a Tidal Hifi plus family account (Argentine) for less than £1 a month due to their currency and economy crashing for nearly two years! Got a few warning emails late 2023, ignored them and then they finally forced closed my account back in October. Then made the switch to Spotify as my Wife’s employer subsidises the subscription and the difference in sound quality is night and day.

I’ll give Malaysia a go!

 

[Durzel]

Interesting, without derailing the thread I thought they had cracked down on this. Had a Tidal Hifi plus family account (Argentine) for less than £1 a month due to their currency and economy crashing for nearly two years! Got a few warning emails late 2023, ignored them and then they finally forced closed my account back in October. Then made the switch to Spotify as my Wife’s employer subsidises the subscription and the difference in sound quality is night and day.

I’ll give Malaysia a go!

They stopped taking foreign Visa/Mastercard on TIDAL Argentina, that’s what killed that off for UK folk. Can confirm Malaysia works on the same Revolut card I used to use on Argentina. Nigeria is cheaper than Malaysia apparently.

 

[yessuz]

just ordered myself Tidal via Columbia. HiFi Plus plan is ~£ 5.70 or so a month

sadly NordVPN does not do Nigeria.. was not aware of Malaysia

 

[Durzel]

just ordered myself Tidal via Columbia. HiFi Plus plan is ~£ 5.70 or so a month

sadly NordVPN does not do Nigeria.. was not aware of Malaysia

I used this app (on a Mac, but there is a Windows version too).

I can't vouch for its safety or reliability, but it was 100% free (not "free but please enter your credit card details") and I was able to connect to a Malaysian VPN within about 3 mins of finding the page on Google.

 

[Durzel]

It might not be same music.

I got given a free 3 month Tidal (partner) subscription which I didn’t realise at the time was linked to US Tidal.

Other than being billed in $, first I realised the implications was trying to access some Pink Floyd albums which were not available to me but were to a fellow Tidal member using UK version. This was down to licensing differences across regions/countries.

I did ask Tidal to swap me over but they said they couldn’t without starting again. They were not bothered about me getting a cheaper $ subscription and actively recommended that I kept it due to cost saving.

Good to know. I hadn't thought about licensing. I haven't come across anything that is obviously missing, but I have a more contemporary taste generally. I have an automated sync set up to bring across my "Discover Weekly" from my UK Spotify Premium account, and 99 times out of 100 always copies across all of the tracks.

 

[yessuz]

Good to know. I hadn't thought about licensing. I haven't come across anything that is obviously missing, but I have a more contemporary taste generally. I have an automated sync set up to bring across my "Discover Weekly" from my UK Spotify Premium account, and 99 times out of 100 always copies across all of the tracks.

how do you sync tidal with spotify?

 

[Rirawin]

I used Tunnelbear to VPN into Nigeria. Their free plan has up to 2GB of bandwidth, so plenty to to do the sign up process with. They do not ask for card details either when using their free plan. When it came to signing up to Tidal for the second time I used a different email account and my Wise card (different payment card and can easily spin up virtual cards), I then made sure when I reached the payment page to turn off the VPN and then submitted my card details (as advised on a few Reddit threads). Worked a treat, $4.67 a month for HiFi Plus. Was tempted by the family package for $7... but still resent paying more than a $1 for it (Argentina RIP) so stuck with the non-family one.

Tidal recommends TuneMyMusic to transfer playlists between music platform accounts. That wasn't around when I switched from Tidal to Spotify last year, incredibly painful process transferring across all those songs! I just used it and it was a breeze. However, you are obviously trusting/inputting your account details to a third party.

 

[Durzel]

how do you sync tidal with spotify?

I use Soundiiz - Transfer playlists and favorites between streaming services

I'm a bit of a cheapskate so I use their free plan which allows one sync to be scheduled. I just set this to happen every Monday morning when Spotify updates, and it copies the playlist across to TIDAL.

And here is the page that goes to TuneMyMusic to transfer playlists, etc from Spotify to TIDAL: https://tidal.com/transfer-music

It has changed since I originally used it and now only does 500 songs for free. It only costs ~$5 to pay for a month to do unlimited (just remember to cancel).

 

[yessuz]

I use Soundiiz - Transfer playlists and favorites between streaming services

I'm a bit of a cheapskate so I use their free plan which allows one sync to be scheduled. I just set this to happen every Monday morning when Spotify updates, and it copies the playlist across to TIDAL.

View attachment 1013541

And here is the page that goes to TuneMyMusic to transfer playlists, etc from Spotify to TIDAL: https://tidal.com/transfer-music

It has changed since I originally used it and now only does 500 songs for free. It only costs ~$5 to pay for a month to do unlimited (just remember to cancel).

heh. used both.

Interesting, that for example Sounbdiiz can transfer discover weekly but this playlist is not available with TuneMyMusic

and "Liked Songs" are available in TuneMyMusic but not available in Soundiiz

 

[AnthonyLR]

You can get TIDAL cheaper by using a VPN, if you're interested. I was using Argentina for the longest time, and a HiFi Plus (the Master quality one) was less than £1.50 a month. Have switched to Malaysis at around £3/month but have been advised that Columbia or Nigeria are cheaper.

Same music, same quality, etc. The only thing I've seen is that the app notifications are in the "usual" language of the country, but they're easily disabled. The app, etc was in English.

The basic TIDAL was even cheaper..

Thanks. I’m one of those weird types who is in awe of musicians and am happy to contribute to whatever measly royalties the streaming services hand over to them. I think Tidal is pretty good about that and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy!

 

[Bootneckshuffl]

I had the high res Tidal subscription and now use Apple Music. Both sound superior in the Tesla in my opinion to Spotify (my son has a premium subscription to Spotify which we tried in the M3P). I don't believe the Tesla uses the Apple Spatial Audio but it has a pleasing soundstage in any case. The Highland M3 very well may do more with the surround sound since it is by all accounts a significant upgrade to the audio.

+1 Apple Music. Sounds pretty good to me.

 

[AnthonyLR]

Thanks. I’m one of those weird types who is in awe of musicians and am happy to contribute to whatever measly royalties the streaming services hand over to them. I think Tidal is pretty good about that and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy!

I just had the following email from Tidal which sounds good:

Starting April 10, 2024, you will now get access to our music library in full lossless, HiRes FLAC, and Dolby Atmos sound for the same price you pay today of £10.99/month.​

This is because we’re making it easier for everyone to enjoy best-in-class sound quality by combining our HiFi and HiFi Plus tiers into a single subscription tier called TIDAL.​

You will see these changes reflected on your Subscription page at account.tidal.com on your first billing date on or after April 10, 2024. Thanks for choosing to be a TIDAL subscriber.​

 

[yessuz]

I just had the following email from Tidal which sounds good:

​

Starting April 10, 2024, you will now get access to our music library in full lossless, HiRes FLAC, and Dolby Atmos sound for the same price you pay today of £10.99/month.​

This is because we’re making it easier for everyone to enjoy best-in-class sound quality by combining our HiFi and HiFi Plus tiers into a single subscription tier called TIDAL.​

You will see these changes reflected on your Subscription page at account.tidal.com on your first billing date on or after April 10, 2024. Thanks for choosing to be a TIDAL subscriber.​

i get same but half price as ordered via vpn...

 

[_MJF_]

I just had the following email from Tidal which sounds good:

​

Starting April 10, 2024, you will now get access to our music library in full lossless, HiRes FLAC, and Dolby Atmos sound for the same price you pay today of £10.99/month.​

This is because we’re making it easier for everyone to enjoy best-in-class sound quality by combining our HiFi and HiFi Plus tiers into a single subscription tier called TIDAL.​

You will see these changes reflected on your Subscription page at account.tidal.com on your first billing date on or after April 10, 2024. Thanks for choosing to be a TIDAL subscriber.​

Strangely, due to the Tidal pricing changes I ended up with a Spotify Premium account. One other thing Tidal have done is to introduce a new £9 monthly charge to use it for DJ-ing (Spotify doesn’t support it anyway), although that might not affect people in the car too much.

Previously was paying for Spotify for one kid (invested in the eco-system) and Tidal for the other (to mess around DJ-ing occasionally), but the extra £9 means Tidal has gone and we’ve now got Spotify Family.

Back to the subject in-hand…on first glance (?) the Spotify Premium sound quality seems better than I expected, maybe it is better than the free in-car one after all. Didn’t seem as much in it compared to Tidal, whereas when comparing the free in-car Spotify to Tidal ages ago the difference was huge.

Would’ve preferred to have gone for family Tidal, but the lack of podcasts loses out to the slightly better sound quality in this case.