George Grella, on The Big City, has an excellent, detailed run-down of the major streaming services and Tidal. His conclusion: Apple Music wins, with Spotify a close second. And Tidal?
Tidal is so sad and so awful, it may be, in terms of who is behind it and the way its been sold, the worst consumer product ever made. It is the the ne plus ultra of the corporate conglomerate record label, with the inflated costs and lack of taste to prove it. Is this Jay-Z’s design, or has he handed it off to managerial types? I can’t decide which is worse.
The piece is mostly good (though I think Grella’s delineation between “music consumers” and “music lovers” is unfair, condescending, and needlessly dichotomous, but that’s for another day). This caught my eye, though:
At least for the musician’s sake, although it is a pittance, everyone should pay for the music they stream.
You could just buy an album.