Tidal (stylized in all caps) is a Norwegian-American subscription-based music, podcast, and video streaming service that offers audio and music videos. Tidal was launched in 2014 by Swedish public company Aspiro which is now majority-owned by Block, Inc., an American payment processing company. With distribution agreements with all three major record labels and many independent labels, Tidal claims to provide access to more than 80 million tracks and 350,000 music videos. It offers two levels of service: Tidal HiFi (up to CD quality â FLAC-based 16-bit/44.1 kHz) and Tidal HiFi Plus (up to MQA 24-bit/96 kHz). Tidal claims to pay the highest percentage of royalties to music artists and songwriters within the music streaming market. In March 2015, Aspiro was acquired by Project Panther Bidco Ltd., which relaunched the service with a mass-marketing campaign, promoting it as the first artist-owned streaming service. In January 2017, Sprint Corporation bought 33% of Tidal for a reported $200 million. In March 2021, Block, then known as Square, agreed to pay $297 million for majority ownership of Tidal. In June 2022, through the disclosure of the Annual Stockholder Meeting 2022, Block reported that the stake acquired in the Tidal music service was 86.8%. While some observers praised the high-fidelity audio quality, and higher subscription fees that would result in higher royalties to the artists and songwriters, others felt the high subscription fees and exclusive Tidal content from the artists involved could lead to more music piracy. Tidal claimed to have over 3 million subscribers in 2016, although the veracity of those claims and the company’s reported streaming numbers have been questioned. As of March 2021, Tidal operates in 61 countries. Branching off from WiMP, which was launched in Norway in 2010 and later available in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and Poland, Aspiro launched the Tidal brand in the UK, the US, and Canada on October 28, 2014. The launch was supported by Sonos and 15 other home audio manufacturers as integration partners. In January 2015, Tidal launched in five more European countries: Ireland, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. In January 2017, the company announced a partnership with British company Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) which they claim delivers master-quality recordings at typically 96 kHz / 24-bit with the highest possible resolution to its HiFi subscribers. Tidal is the only streaming company to offer MQA. MQA is a lossy format. On January 23, 2017, US mobile carrier Sprint announced that they were buying a 33 percent stake in Tidal, and it was reported that Sprint would offer exclusive content to Sprint customers. In September 2017, Tidal partnered with Mercedes-Benz’s web portal app. American rapper Nicki Minaj starred in a commercial promoting the Mercedes partnership. The catalog available in MQA on Tidal currently comprises certain albums and singles from Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, its affiliates, and certain independent distributors, including the AvidPlay service provided by Avid Technology. Since November 2020, the largest part of the MQA catalog available on Tidal is that of Warner Music Group and its affiliates, which was made available as part of a new deal with MQA and Warner Music Group itself. In the past, Sony Music also offered certain albums and singles from their catalog in MQA on Tidal, but their quality was later reduced; exceptions include Beyonce’s albums Lemonade and Homecoming: The Live Album, both released by Parkwood Entertainment and distributed by Sony Music’s label Columbia Records (likely most possible reason of these exceptions is Tidal’s ownership Jay-Z is Beyonce’s husband).
Tidal offers a free subscription and 2 paid subscriptions – HiFi and HiFi Plus. The free subscription features good sound quality of up to 160 kbps, 90M+ songs, limited interruptions, and expert-curated playlists. The HiFi subscription is free for 30 days and then $9.99 per month thereafter. The features of the HiFi subscription are HiFi sound quality up to 1411 kbps, 90M+ songs and 450K+ videos, ad-free, listening offline with unlimited skips, TIDAL Connect, listening in HiFi on your supported devices, tracking and sharing your listening habits, and expert-curated playlists. The HiFi Plus subscription is free for 30 days and then $19.99 per month thereafter. The features of the HiFi Plus subscription are innovative audio formats up to 9216 kbps, Master Quality Authenticated (MQA), Dolby Atmos, Sony 360 Reality Audio, and HiFi, 90M+ songs, and 450K+ videos, ad-free, listening offline with unlimited skips, TIDAL Connect, listening in all innovative and immersive audio formats on your supported devices, Direct Artist Payouts, up to 10% of your subscription is directed to the artists you listen to the most, tracking and sharing how your listening habits impact your favorite artists and expert-curated playlists.
Tidal can be contacted via live chat or a contact form. To contact Tidal via live chat, just visit https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us and click on the chat icon in the lower right corner of the screen. To contact Tidal through the contact form, just visit https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/requests/new.
TIDAL CANCEL GUIDES
Get together the following account information:
First Name
Last Name
Phone Number
Email Address
Username
Password
Billing Address
City
State/Province/Region
ZIP/Postal Code
Country
Reason for Cancellation
Last 4 Digits of Card
Date of Last Charge
Amount of Last Charge
Web Form
Follow these steps:
In a browser, goto https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
Now enter your information
Advise the rep that you need to cancel within the message body
Be sure to get a confirmation number or email for the cancellation in reply to your request
Be sure to keep the email and/or confirmation info about the cancellation
