The Search for the Holy Grail of Music Streaming, Part 3: Tidal

I'm back at trying out music streaming services after auditioning both Spotify and Google Play Music. I didn't care for Spotify at all, and Google Play Music, while better, still had its own issues. I moved onto what seemed like the next best option: Jay-Z's service, Tidal.

Tidal relaunched itself this past March with Jay-Z and a slew of other artists (including some personal favorites like Coldplay and Arcade Fire, as well as Beyonce, Nicki Minaj, Daft Punk, and others) touting themselves as co-owners. They all signed a declaration at the launch event that basically said Tidal would revolutionize music streaming as we know it.

Here's the problem: it didn't. Tidal didn't catch on with the general public and is generally regarded as a business failure. They're on their third CEO since their relaunch and have failed to attract any kind of significant subscriber base.

This really sucks, especially considering that I love the way Tidal works. I love the way playback works (besides one small gripe), I love the interface of the mobile apps (even though the web player and desktop apps leave a little to be desired), I love the library (minus the universal exclusion of the Beatles and T-Swift's 1989), and I love the intent of increasing the royalty returns for the artists who work so hard to make their music, as that is why I am so hesitant to use music streaming in the first place.

So, instead of telling you why you should subscribe to Tidal now, I'm going to tell you this: Tidal is the best music streaming service for replacing your library...at least until it goes out of business. I'm giving it nine months. Jay-Z has even debated pulling himself out of the venture. It's that bad.

Now, Tidal has a few other things I'll cover for those of you who are still interested:

• Their exclusive content is pretty interesting. By itself it won't draw you in, but it's a nice perk nonetheless. 
• The one playback gripe I have: playlists don't have an option to shuffle in their playback submenu. That's it. Album playback works beautifully, and the queue operation is perfect for my needs. 
• Tidal, like Spotify but unlike Google Play Music, has a student discount rate of $4.99/month for it's premium tier. 
• They do have a "Hi-Fi" option for twice the amount of a standard subscription that brings you lossless FLAC audio. This is great...unless you're on mobile data. A single song of FLAC will run you about 40 MB. I couldn't tell the difference in their online test, so I opted for the standard bitrate, which still sounds better than Spotify or Google Play to me. 
• There's no free tier for Tidal, so you'll have to pony up and pay. There is a month-long free trial. 
• Music discovery is different on Tidal than other services. Instead of using any kind of algorithms, they push unknown artists that are on their service to give them more exposure. I don't like this as much as other services' options, but it's an interesting take on the feature. 

I'm going to continue to use Tidal through the month until I'll cancel my subscription. I love the way it works, and I love how easy it is to just listen to hours of music on end with it. I just don't want to get too deeply invested in an ecosystem that's poised to go away soon. Moving on...