Spotify vs Tidal: Which one is the best music app in 2025?
Our way of listening to music has changed in recent times, swapping from physical devices to streaming services to get access to our favorite music tracks. Instead of owning music, we are willing to buy content through a monthly subscription, thus accessing music without actually buying it. Music streaming is one of the fastest-growing industries, with 236 million people paying for music subscriptions worldwide.
Being new in music streaming, there are various music streaming platforms, and choosing the best among them is very tricky. In this breakdown, I’ll compare Spotify vs Tidal for you. After going through this article, you can choose the best music streaming platform according to your music craze. We compare all the music streaming platforms, so don’t forget to check out these differences: Spotify vs Apple Music and Spotify vs Amazon Music.
Spotify vs Tidal: Price
Spotify offers a freemium plan as well as four premium plans. Premium plans cost from 11.99$ to 19.99$ per month, while a student plan costs 5.99$ per month. Tidal also offers a freemium plan as well as a premium plan. The basic premium plan of Tidal has the same price as that of Spotify, but it has a HIFI Plus plan, which costs more than that of Spotify. Tidal also offers HiFi Plus program for high-quality streaming, but its cost is much higher. In HiFi Plus, streaming of the basic plan costs 19.99$, whereas for the student plan, it is 9.99$, and for the family plan, it is 29.99$ per month. Tidal also offers a discount to military personnel, and their plan costs 5.99$ for basic and 11.99$ for HiFi Plus.
| Premium Plans | Spotify Prices | Tidal HiFi Prices | Tidal HiFi Plus Prices |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual | $11.99/month | $10.99/month | $19.99/month |
| Duo | $15.99/month | ____ | ____ |
| Familiar | $19.99/month | $16.99/month | $29.99/month |
| Student | $5.99/month | $4.99/month | $9.99/month |
| Military | ____ | $5.99/month | $11.99/month |
Winner: Spotify can be a better choice for basic premium and free plan, but if you are a dedicated music lover and love high-quality streaming, you should opt for Tidal.
Spotify vs Tidal: Music Library
Despite some of the high-profile singers getting apart from Spotify due to better packages from other platforms, Spotify still owns a massive collection of 100 million soundtracks. If you are a music fan, there is no shortage of popular hits on Spotify. Apart from soundtracks, Spotify also had a massive collection of podcasts and exclusive esports content for users.
Tidal has a massive collection of 110 million music hits. The entire music collection is categorized into 20 genres. It is considered to be the highest paying platform for the artist; therefore, a couple of artists have become part of this platform. Apart from music tracks, Tidal has a massive collection of HD videos on offer for users.
Winner: when it comes to the music collection, both Spotify and Tidal have massive collections with amazing curated playlists, and popular music hits that the users love, but Tidal is slightly better than Spotify in terms of content variety.
Spotify vs Tidal: Audio Quality
Spotify offers five audio quality settings having a streaming rate of 96Kbps to 320Kbps. The highest quality streaming is 320Kbps. It does not provide lossless streaming; therefore, it may not be the choice of audiophiles.
Tidal offers three music streaming tiers:
Normal, Hi-Fi, and Master. The streaming rate of the Normal plan is 160Kbps, Whereas, for the Hi-Fi plan, it is 1411Kbps. Hi-Fi and Master are the most expensive music streaming subscription plans offering extremely high-quality sounds. The streaming rate of the Master plan is 2306-9216 Kbps, delivered via FLAC or WAV file.
| Quality Setting | Spotify | Tidal |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic | Depends on connection | N/A |
| Low | 24 kbps | N/A |
| Normal | 96 kbps | 160 kbps |
| High | 160 kbps | 320 kbps |
| Very High | 320 kbps | N/A |
| HiFi | N/A | 1,411 kbps |
| Master | N/A | 2,304 – 9,216 kbps |
Winner: In terms of Sound quality and audio streaming, Tidal is far ahead of Spotify due to high-quality music streaming.
Spotify vs Tidal: Compatibility
Spotify and Tidal are available on several platforms like PC, Android, and iOS. They also support Google Chromecast and Apple Airplay. Spotify has Spotify Connect, which connects users to Speakers, TVs, and other streaming systems like Hi-Fi and AV products. Tidal also offers Tidal Connect, which provides similar services and cast MQA and Dolby Atmos files. Tidal has increased its availability and can be accessed via apps and web players. Several HiFi products like Sonos, Bluesound and, Denon Hoes, Cyrus Players can be accessed through Tidal.
Winner: Spotify and Tidal offer a lot of platforms; therefore, both applications are similar in terms of compatibility.
Spotify vs Tidal: Social Media Connectivity
Spotify is more compatible than Tidal on social media as it offers premier features of sharing your playlists and music tracks with your friends. You can connect with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snap Chat or create links to share music and playlists with each other. It helps us to discover new music. Tidal also offers services to share music through social media platforms but does not offer other social features.
Winner: Spotify has a clear edge over Tidal in terms of social media connectivity for sharing music and content with your friends.
Spotify vs Tidal: Design
Spotify and Tidal both offer elegant designs of the user’s interface. Both of them have a nicer look and easy navigation tools. A compatible design is offered by both for music streaming with a full suite of playback controls, Legible fonts and logical navigation, big search bars, and large images. In terms of search quality, Spotify offers better services than Tidal.
Winner: Spotify has a slight edge over Tidal in terms of design as it offers better search quality and is easier to navigate than Tidal.
Additional Features
Spotify and Tidal both offer additional exciting features of music streaming for music lovers. Spotify has a popular feature, WRAPPED, which gives you a summary of the music you have listened. Another feature, Behind the Lyrics, shares stories of the artists and trivia. Spotify also offers live-streamed concerts for users.
Tidal offers Tidal’s Online Magazine, which shares write-ups and articles regarding music. It also offers song credit features making it a haven for music lovers. Tidal has a partnership with Oculus to share exclusive access to events as well as live performances. Another amazing feature of Tidal, named My Activity, has been developed, which offers insight into your streaming habits; thus, you can have knowledge of your music interests and changes occurring from time to time.
Spotify vs Tidal: Which one is best?
Spotify and Tidal are amazing music streaming platforms, and it is not easy to choose the best of them. Spotify offers a Freemium plan, more playlists, slightly better at music discovery, more social media interactions, and additional features of Google Maps integration Wrapped and Behind the Lyrics. Tidal offers you high-quality video streaming, better sound quality, offers discounts on premium packages for military persons, and an exquisite user interface. For dedicated music lovers, a collection of Jay-Z, Beyonce, Kayne, West, etc. will be integral for opting for Tidal.
| Characteristics | Spotify | Tidal |
|---|---|---|
| Price and Subscriptions | ✔ | |
| Music Library | ✔ | ✔ |
| Audio Quality | ✔ | |
| Compatibilty | ✔ | ✔ |
| Social Media Connectivity | ✔ | |
| Design | ✔ |
Choosing the best among the two also depends on whether you like Hi-Res Audio or not. If yes, Tidal will be your ultimate choice, and if not, then you can opt for Spotify. After going through so much comparison, if you are still not in a position to choose the best music streaming platform for you, you can opt for the free trial plan of both platforms and sees how it works. There may be some differences in the features of Spotify and Tidal, but if you take the premium plan of any of them, it will be worth it for you, and you will be going to enjoy the incredible music streaming.
Conclusion
In a breakdown of Spotify vs Tidal, it is not easy to select a single winner as both platforms offer exquisite premier services for music streaming for the users. Spotify offers better music discovery, curated playlists, and better connectivity with other platforms, while Tidal offers high-quality video streaming and exquisite sound quality. If you are a music lover, who loves better sound quality, then you simply go for Tidal; otherwise, Spotify will do good in fulfilling your needs.
After so much comparison of Spotify vs Tidal, still, you are in doubt of choosing a better option, then you may opt for a free trial of both platforms and observe which platform is better suited for your music listening craze.
