I just downgraded my subscription to Hifi, I live in Canada, so I went from paying $19.99 a month to $9.99 a month. Now Spotify Hifi might not get my money after all if they ever do launch.
the downgrade is only effective from next billing cycle, which for me is mid - Dec
I think Iāll keep the top tier subscription. I like that my top artist will get some extra income. As they should. I have a lot of releases on Tidal and would love to get a few bucks more a year from listeners streaming the songs. This should be common practice from all tiers of all services tbh, or perhaps these services should pay a reasonable rate to artists to begin with. Tidal is, I believe, the highest paying of the common services.
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@Naim.Marketing
Tidal website explains the differences between their subscription tiers.
Tidal Hi-Fi Plus offers Hi-Res up to 9216 kbps 24bit/192 Khz Vs. 1411 kbps 16 bit /44.1 Khz in Tidal Hi Fi
This is not MQA/Dolby Atmos/Sony 360 encoding but standard stereo just in higher res
Is this not supported by Naim streamers and is a reason to keep the higher tier subscription?
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Yes, it looks likes Tidal HiFi plus includes hi-res versions as well as MQA versions, hereās an example I found quickly:
Yes - Qobuz
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Yes, Tidal Hi-Fi Plus, as pointed out above 
I am not currently a Tidal user (have had trials in the past, but hated the sound of MQA on my non MQA Atom, and have a fundamental aversion to it tbh). Even Roon doing the first software āunfoldā sounded too bright and shiny for me.
That aside, I may well be interested in the HiFi tierā¦ IF what they stream is 16bit 44.1 kHz CD quality FLAC that has not been through the MQA āglitter machineā.
Particularly with Naims recent Tidal Connect integration, I see this as a potential way to:
- Give family access to lossless CD quality streaming
- A āmodernā control app (Tidal app on iOS)
- The ability for us to have our own individual accounts/playlists/favourites etcā¦
Regarding point 3 above, am I right in thinking that by using Tidal Connect, we would be able to be logged into our own Tidal accounts within the Tidal app, and each choose music to stream to our Atom without any tedious logging in/out within the Naim app?
Thanks for any clarification!
Mark
From the Tidal support page:
How Are Royalties Currently Being Calculated?
Currently, all major streaming services calculate royalties for sound recordings in a similar manner. An overall royalty āpoolā is determined every month by streaming providers, the size of which is based upon the total subscription fees received from subscribers for that month. Then, the total number of streams are aggregated across subscribers each month on a country and plan basis, and then split by artist.
Streaming services then pay record labels and distributors these monthly royalties based on their respective artists. From there, artists receive a portion of the overall royalty āpoolā, based on the aggregate listening patterns for the month.
One result of this system is that the fans who stream less than average in a particular month wind up paying less money to the artists they love and instead see some of their subscription fees going to artists they never listened to at all.
It also explains the new fan-centered royalties and new direct artist payouts:
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Well that is new then if they have regular high res music, I thought it was only with MQA?
Qobuz.
It may sound good but I think it might be counterintuitive if you do more than streaming.
I am likely to have purchased a combination of CDs/Vinyl/Downloads/Concert BluRays etc from my favourite artists who will remain reasonably constant over time and get lots of playback.
It is the less frequently played bands that will lose out AFAICS.
Why should one band get the whole 10% rather than the 10% be distributed amongst all on a percentage of playback time that month, otherwise itās all or nothing. This would seem fairer to me.
Equally we all know most consumers will go for the cheapest options that do what they need and for the most part wonāt care what the bands are paid even if a small number do.
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I donāt see why not - itās only MQA we donāt support. Will run some tests today now the new tiers are live
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You still get mqa encoded files on the hifi tier that are 44.1/24 you donāt escape them totally. You just donāt get ones that go to higher resolutions. Roon will still perform the first unfold on these unless you turn the mqa decoder off. Found many many that are mqa already.
Hi guys,
by using Mu-so and Mu-so Qb both second generation, are there any differences in listening between the Hi-Fi subscription and the Hi-Fi plus subscription? Now I have qobuz, it sounds good but the catalog is really chaotic.
No itās the same catalogue. Naim dont support MQA so you would be getting the same on Hifi + as on Hifi so itās of no use to you.
So Tidal Hi-Fi plus is just MQA which Naim doesnāt support. While compared to qubuz it would be a step backwards, because they offer Hi-res, even if my ear is not always sensitive enough to appreciate the difference.
no itās not since thereās also hires - please see table above
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Has anyone found a non-MQA hires file on Tidal?
That was my inference, if not a bit misleading. MQA needs to be put to pasture.