Tidal Becomes First Service to Offer “Master-Quality” Streaming

Tidal Becomes First Service to Offer “Master-Quality” Streaming

Tidal is now offering “master-quality audio recordings” to its highest-tiered subscribers, the company announced today. Tidal Masters is available at no extra cost to users who already have a Tidal HiFi subscription. Described as “an audio experience exactly as the artist intended,” Tidal Masters songs are streamed at 96 kHz/24 bit. (For comparison, HiFi audio’s resolution is 44.1 kHz/16 bit, and Spotify’s highest resolution is ~320 kbps, equivalent to Tidal’s Premium tier.)

Tidal has partnered with Master Quality Authenticated to provide the higher resolution audio. Currently, Tidal Masters is available only on desktop. Below, watch a video introducing Masters. Find the streaming company’s master-quality catalog, which includes music from Jay Z, Beyoncé, David Bowie, Madonna, Joni Mitchell, and more, here.

Several streaming platforms and record labels have also announced plans to offer high-resolution streaming, Billboard reports. At a Digital Entertainment Group-sponsored “Audio Pavilion” at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, three major labels (Universal, Sony, and Warner), the Recording Industry Association of America, and three streaming platforms (Pandora, Rhapsody/Napster, and HD Tracks) indicated that they would like to explore new high-resolution opportunities.

Read “The Year in Streaming 2016,” as well as our Cover Story “Station to Station: The Past, Present, and Future of Streaming Music.”

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