Since TIDAL dropped ain't shit been the same... no Drake. Or better yet, no Kendrick cypher verses (sorry, trying to be clever with "punch lines" as the real heads put it, how's that working for me?). Music sales have been down for just under the past 10 years or so, because... the internet. All of the money that artists rake in now is mostly from streaming services like Spotify, Tidal, etc. Music streaming is the move nowadays it seems, more music for a better value is hard to argue, but what kind of value is each of these services giving you, you ask? Leave that to me. I went through each streaming service (out of the 3 big ones making waves, TIDAL, Spotify and Apple Music) and laid out some details for which ones benefit YOU the consumer the most, because as they say, the music is always right (or something like that).
Spotify
Spotify is my current streaming service of choice, I had an account (non payment, so I deal with all of the advertisement bull) before all of the wars for best streaming service started with TIDAL and Apple Music, but since the latter 2 have started to threaten Spotify's reign on streaming, Spotify has upped it's game to the next level, the biggest plus being it offering 99 cents of premium service (no ads) for 3 months. If you're unfamiliar with Spotify, you can find practically any and every band, group, singer, or rapper's music on it, and they add music as the releases roll out, sometimes the day of said release. If you're unsure of what you'd like to listen to, Spotify builds playlists in the "Genres and Moods" column, if you're out partying with the squad then you can find that party playlist, or if you're at home chilling you can find that "chill out and do laundry" playlist, and everything in between. Spotify has an unlimited service which is 4.99 per month for no ads and unlimited streaming on strictly desktops and laptops, while the premium service is 9.99 per month for unlimited streaming and no ads, available for use on multiple devices (iPad, phone, computers, etc.). The only notable complaint I have as a Spotify user is the disconnecting that sometimes occurs with it, you have to disconnect and reconnect to your internet to get it to work again, but that could just be my crappy internet (middle class problems).
TIDAL
The service that started these wars was TIDAL, and it all started with that crazy commercial that included practically every notable musical artist known today (or most of them). This commercial probably grabbed your attention (as it did mine) when it mentioned something about "bringing music back to the artists" (not a direct quote, but Jay Z mentioned something of that nature). I can see a little of the "benefiting the artists" factor with a couple of upcoming bands and singers being featured with some of their music, which is a cool and different thing to do for a streaming service (it all lies on who has the best EXCLUSIVE content), but finding where this benefits the people is just a bit harder. TIDAL's premium (standard) service starts at 9.99 a month (or 8.49 with 6 months pre paid), which includes the standard music quality, but with high definition music videos. TIDAL's HiFi is a little more on the expensive side at 19.99 per month (or 16.99 with 6 months pre paid), but this includes what TIDAL describes as "lossless High Fidelity sound quality." Now with all of that being said you could make your own judgments about TIDAL, but follow their Twitter account and it shows that the subscribers feedback does not lie. Many people have come out and said that TIDAL's live streaming of concerts (these concerts included Jay Z's "B Sides" concert, another perk of being a TIDAL member I suppose) is given in crystal clear high definition, although the exact resolution was not specified. Sort of expensive to pay, but you're not just paying for the music in TIDAL, in seems, they're stressing quality as a top priority.
Apple Music
Apple Music is another streaming service that had just recently launched (as in within the past week) and was looking to make waves (not necessarily TIDAL waves, but you know.... sorry, I had to). Apple Music hasn't had the huge promo that TIDAL has, but supposedly last night it had aired an exclusive Zane Lowe interview with the one and only Eminem (which I need to find somewhere because, c'mon, Eminem). Not only this, but supposedly Drake is releasing his next album exclusively through Apple Music, and supposedly Dr. Dre is having a big part in the streaming service as well (though it's hard to tell what right now). Apple Music describes its experience as such: "To deepen the connection between artists and fans. To give you personal recommendations from people who know and love music. To reimagine radio with a 24/7 global station." Apple seems to be edging out Spotify as the best price (for right now) with a free 3 month trial, but the subscription entails over 30 million songs for 9.99 a month, or 14.99 for family (who knows what the "family" subscription means, possibly more members? No details on this yet). When you start your subscription all of your already obtained music (somehow) automatically appears in the Apple Music library, and Apple's "experts" (who knows what kind of experts, supposedly actual artists) make suggestions based on what you like. The Beats 1 radio station is "24/7 radio, including music, interviews, and culture" (so it says on the website). The connect aspect seems to be the post interesting of the features, it says fans can "see, comment on, like, and share whatever exciting material an artist chooses to post. Unreleased demo tracks, an acoustic version of the latest hit, a video shot in the studio," etc. This to me sounds like something I'd kill to see, but only for some rappers. I surely wouldn't pay to see behind the scenes material of Taylor Swift, no disrespect to Taylor, but not my cup of tea musically. Lots of dope features, just needs some tampering with just as all musical services do.
So there's a (hopefully quick and helpful) review of what these music services all entail. I included all the details I could about each one down to the prices, now it's on what your preference is. I'm personally a fan of music with no adds, so I like Spotify's premium idea (even though I don't pay, so I do deal with ads), but Apple's idea of taking behind the scenes content to a new level is truly for a die hard rap fan such as myself. The idea of exclusive concerts, interviews and album releases like TIDAL and Apple Music are doing is taking things to a whole new level. For instance, Eminem is God to me, so seeing him do an exclusive interview that I could (hypothetically) only see on Apple Music's website certainly draws me to Apple Music strictly for that factor. I live for behind the scenes content. But I need to know what you think! Let me know which streaming service you'd go with based on the details and why either on Google+ or in the comment section, I'd love to hear what you think. Music streaming is taking over, does this mean death to physical albums? Hopefully not, but only time will tell.
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