Streaming Services: Does It Even Matter
We can trade the pros and cons of the two music streaming services that would last for days. Honestly, the functionality of either service or any other service doesn’t really matter. What it comes down to is how will the service integrate into your lifestyle. I personally do not care much for Pandora or Spotify. To me, they essentially pull you in with the promise of being able to stream millions of songs for free with the hopes that you will pay to have more control over what plays next. From my experience, those who want to pay, pay and those that do not want to pay, do not pay. I love music, and I want to build my own playlist. I want my playlist to cross genres and invoke multiple feelings; happiness, sadness, nostalgia, etc.. I make a playlist for road trips, cookouts, and moments to myself. To me, control is where Apple Music and Tidal rise above the rest.
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The Real Difference
Where Apple Music and Tidal differentiate is simple, if you use other Apple products and services, Apple Music is definitively better. If you do not use other Apple products and services, I could not imagine Apple Music is a very good experience. The fact that you can integrate Apple Music with tour local iTunes library is amazing for someone like me who has an extensive collection of out of print music, not available on any streaming service, from the 90’s and early 2000’s. Add in the fact that you can upload your local collection to the cloud, from a Mac (of course), and stream it as well it is the hands-down winner for me. While I feel that the flow of Tidal, particularly on mobile devices is leaps and bounds better than Apple’s approach, the seamless iPhone integration is too much to ignore. I actually used Tidal for the last year or so, and it was pretty good for when I used it. If there was one complaint that I could give to both, it would be the lack of an app for Linux. As both companies strive to improve there services, we will likely revisit this debate soon.
