There is already another thread on this! Maybe something for @Richard.Dane to consider merging?
I currently have a family Spotify premium account plus a Qobuz account for myself, so this will be interesting dependent on price and the quality of the files they deliver. One thing is for certain, competition should bring the prices down to where hi-res becomes the norm and we pay a similar amount to now.
The question is, will I jack in my Qobuz in favour of a hi-res family Spotify account?
Been waiting years for this but not holding my breath
Threads are now merged.
One catch perhaps though is that Spotify relies heavily on curated lists and automated radio, so artists can generate a lot of casual listens through that. Spotifyâs radio and recommendations systems works quite well (for most people), and itâs used by many users.
On Tidal this effect will be much smaller, itâs curated lists and recommendations are much simpler and of less quality generally.
One thing that really annoyed me when i used Tidal (last year for about 6 months), is that when i simply let Tidal decide what to play, within 10 tracks it would almost always play one or two tracks from Jay-Z or Beyoncé, who are both completely not my taste but do have a vested interest obviously. (this may have been just on my system, but it did annoy me at the time)
Sure, Spotify pays a third per stream, but has a lot more streams. Though curated stuff will benefit the chosen ones.
The Jay-Z/Beyoncé pushing of Tidal is tedious.
This is also for user-curated lists, if you start a list âSuedkiez favoritesâ for instance, it will be promoted more as it gets more listens, or to people in your friends/contacts list.
(this is something that i donât think exists on Tidal currently)
You still need a lot of streams.
Back in December 2019, you may have read our report on cellist Zoe Keatingâs receiving a $753 check from Spotify, as compensation for 206,011 streams. Rounding up, the sum represents a per-stream royalty rate of $0.0037 â down from Keatingâs 2018 Spotify royalty rate of about $0.0054. Separately, mechanical royalty firm Audiam also suggested that Spotify royalties have decreased despite rising subscriber counts and revenue.
https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/12/25/streaming-music-services-pay-2019/
Yes i certainly agree that Spotify should pay artists a lot more in generalâŠ
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This calculator makes it less abstract:
I know this is now a bit off-topic but this Podcast from Audiophile Style has an interview with the chaps from Qobuz where they talk about how artists actually get paid when their music is streamed. An interesting hour listen.
Darko claims the Spotify Stream On program could bring millions more users into the audiophile world:
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Some good observations there from Darko, i think heâs on to something. Spotify is looking to go creator-centric rather than just consumer-centric, and hifi quality is perhaps more interesting to them to attract new creators than it is to attract new subscribers.
Youtube already does the lofi thing very succesfully for creators, but offers them a lot less revenue. Spotify offering hifi could be a real differentatior for serious creators, and it pays them more than Youtube does. For most audio related content the video part isnât that interesting anyway, and technically Spotify can also offer video streams if it wants (it has some already but very limited).
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An interesting video; thanks for sharing. I used to use Spotify, before buying my NDX2 and A&K Hi-res DAP, when I went over to Qobuz. I am very surprised that the guy says only 10% of Qobuzâs (and Tidals) library is hi-res. It seems higher than that. I may well consider this, and I do think it will attract people. I like Qobuz, but Spotifyâs curation (making playlists and artist âradio stationsâ) is much better than those on Qobuz, which I feel is very much an âalbumâ service, albeit a good one.
Hi Clare. I am about to buy Naim, but I hit pause after reading the Spotify announcement, simply due to compatibility concerns. Is it safe to assume current Naim models will support the new Spotify HiDef standard (after software update) or would you advise waiting until the situation is clearer?
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Weâre under NDA with Spotify until they are ready to launch, so I canât say anything specific. What I can say is that our current streaming-platform products are designed to be easily adaptable via Firmware update, and that Spotify is one of our key development partners. 
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Hi Clare. You refer to the current streaming platforms, will my NDX work with the higher resolution Spotify?
I really canât comment on something that hasnât been formally announced. As soon as we can share more info, we will.
Understood, I will have to be patient! May be academic anyway as Spotify 320 kbps sounds so good through my NDX that I cancelled both Tidal HiFi and Qobuz after the 2 trialsâŠ
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Check your ears .