Tidal this week released an Apple Watch app that allows subscribers to stream music directly on their wrist. The app is available through the App Store on watchOS.
Tidal’s main selling point, not that it was very successful, was that it streamed high-fidelity audio, but that bullet point evaporated earlier this month when Apple announced that Apple Music is bringing industry-leading sound quality to subscribers with the addition of Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos. Spatial Audio gives artists the opportunity to create immersive audio experiences for their fans with true multidimensional sound and clarity.
Apple Music subscribers will also be able to listen to more than 75 million songs in Lossless Audio. These new features will be available for Apple Music subscribers starting next month at no additional cost.
With the latest Tidal app, subscribers can:
• Stream music and control playback of Tidal directly on your Apple Watch, independent of your iPhone.
• Download all your favorite playlists and listen offline from anywhere without internet connectivity.
MacDailyNews Take: Pure panic has set in among the also-rans. Releasing an app with features that should have existed years ago isn’t going to stop the inevitable, Tidal.
Apple uses ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) to preserve every single bit of the original audio file. This means Apple Music subscribers will be able to hear the exact same thing that the artists created in the studio at no additional cost.
To start listening to Lossless Audio, subscribers using the latest version of Apple Music can turn it on in Settings > Music > Audio Quality. Here, they can choose different resolutions for different connections such as cellular, Wi-Fi, or for download. Apple Music’s Lossless tier starts at CD quality, which is 16 bit at 44.1 kHz (kilohertz), and goes up to 24 bit at 48 kHz and is playable natively on Apple devices. For the true audiophile, Apple Music also offers Hi-Resolution Lossless all the way up to 24 bit at 192 kHz.
Yea…because music sounds sooooo wonderful coming from a watch???
I think there is a misconception that Tidal, Qobuz and Apple Music are in the exact same business.
While Apple Music plays on millions of devices and will soon offer higher resolution audio, it will not replace the reason many audiophiles prefer the other two and that is mainly integration with Roon, Audirvana and to a lesser degree BluOS.
While you can get some good results with Apple THROUGH other players like Roon, you don’t get total integration. This may be something Apple is planning to do in the future (I doubt it) but more than likely they will continue to take slow baby steps to add the features of Roon and Audirvana.
Or maybe just buy one of them…
Yet Apple won’t let use our subsciption with DJ apps. For a company who has music in their DNA, they sure never DJ anywhere. Spotify, Pandora, Deezer for DJ!!! Shame Apple!