This week it isn’t too much on me hating on an update but simply observing the interface of the app, Tidal. Tidal is a high quality streaming service for audiophiles basically. It has been a good streaming service and can be a good replacement for something like Spotify depending on who you talk to. However I would like to say that at launch the Tidal app wasn’t so clean and simple. It was pretty messy and not the best UI for a mobile music app. Spotify in my opinion started off like this too. I wanted to say that the new Tidal app is really great and gets the job done. To me, it is a blend of Apple Music and Spotify, interface-wise. Apple Music and Spotify reign supreme in this industry and I think Tidal has long ways to go before it can really compete. The point of tidal isn’t to really compete but offer the best listening experience and in most cases in does, if you have the right ear. Something I really like about Apple Music and Spotify are the curated playlists and what the AI thinks you’ll like. Usually they are pretty good and recommend a few good tracks. Tidal doesn’t really cater to this and does a bad job of offering new music or artists I should listen to. Apple music knows really well that I hate country and I haven’t been recommended anything close to that genre. This morning on Tidal’s highlight weekly playlists it has a country one. Pretty disturbing for me to see so early. The interface is very good and is easy on the eyes unlike apple but similar to Spotify. One thing that I really hate about the interface is the sorting of artists. On Apple, if it sees a “the” before band name it will alphabetically put it where it starts after the “the”. For example, “The Stone Roses” and “The Smiths” will be put in ‘S’ in Apple Music but on Tidal it goes in ‘T’ and it can get really annoying just because when it comes to music I need it to be a pleasant experience. So other than the suggested artists, playlist that aren’t really great or I already have them in my library, it can be rough. I do appreciate the splash page and collection page. I believe these look great and show what you need or help you get to what you need. The option to mess with streaming quality is also a plus. Helps reduce data usage and on desktop allows you to stream in the highest lossless quality.
