Spotify Vs Tidal: Which Music App I Should Ditch in 2024?

I stumbled upon various music apps to find the best one for myself in 2024 but believe me, in my every top 10 best music app search, I find Spotify and Tidal at the top of the list. 

However, to choose the best music app, I used a Spotify Vs Tidal comparison test. Comparing the features of both apps was fun for me and improved my knowledge about the music and content. With Tidal, you can listen to music with high audio quality, like Hi-Fi features, however, with Spotify, you can enjoy many other perks.

Let’s find out which music app has better music-listening features and which music app I ditched in 2024.

I thought why not do some research about, Spotify and Tidal before choosing any of them for listening to music? This step will save us from wrong decisions and help us find the app that meets our needs. So, this is what I found on the internet.

Spotify was launched in 2008 and ruled the music industry in Europe, whereas, Tidal came into existence in 2014. However, Tidal is a Norwegian music app, whereas Spotify belongs to a Swedish music streaming service.

Spotify also has a large fan following, which is proved by its 403 million active followers, and Tidal has only around 103 million subscribers. Spotify is also available in more countries than Tidal, which is around 180+ countries, while the latter is only available in 61 countries.

However, it does not mean that Tidal lost the war before entering the battlefield, it also has some unique features. Such as, if you want to listen to music at high audio quality, then Tidal is the best music app for you.

Some comparisons of features between Spotify and Tidal are discussed below, just have a look at them:

For many of us, sound quality matters most while listening to music. We can ignore the expensive rates if we are getting better sound effects, right? Therefore, if we focus on sound quality when choosing between Spotify and Tidal, then Tidal scores a point.

This is because it offers higher audio quality than Spotify. However, Spotify offers 5 different audio qualities but unfortunately, they are still lower than Tidal’s audio quality. Tidal gives CD-quality audio at a premium and if we move to a premium plus plan, then HiRes FLAC audio to the users.

However, the audio quality of Spotify ranges from 24 kbps, at the freemium version to 320 kbps in Ogg Vorbis audio format at the premium plan, whereas, the audio formats of Tidal are ACC, FLAC, and HiRes FLAC.

With the advantage, Tidal also holds one drawback and that is, its excessive buffering and usage of data. On the other hand, you can listen to music on Spotify without buffering and by using data around 150 MB per hour, which is economical. While Tidal’s extreme audio quality consumes 10 GB of data per hour, such a huge number, right?

Subscription Plan	Audio Settings	Audio Format
Spotify Premium	Automatic	Ogg/Vorbis format
	24 kbps	Ogg/Vorbis format
	96 kbps	Ogg/Vorbis format
	160 kbps	Ogg/Vorbis format
	320 kbps	Ogg/Vorbis format
Tidal HiFi	96 or 320 kbps	ACC
	16-bit, 44.1 kHz	FLAC
Tidal HiRes	96 or 320 kbps	ACC
	16-bit, 44.1 kHz	FLAC
	24-bit, 192 kHz	HiRes FLAC

Winner: I prefer to use Spotify, as it consumes less data and makes smooth music listening, however, you can choose Tidal, if you want to listen to music at high audio quality ignoring the buffering and extra data consumption issue.

Being a student and tight on budget, I always look at the price plans of various apps before selecting any one. And, for many reasons, I find Spotify superior to Tidal. Do you too want to know those reasons? 

Spotify offers flexibility in its price plans as compared to Tidal, moreover, its prices are also cheaper. Another amazing feature of Spotify is offering a freemium version, which Tidal does not have, However, Tidal offers a free trial for 30 days to its users.

Tidal Hi-Fi and Hi-Fi Plus tier are more expensive than Spotify’s premium plans. However, it seems that Tidal has lower prices but when we compare the overall features and flexibility Spotify is ahead of the game.

Spotify’s plans of Spotify Duo, Spotify Family, Spotify Kids, and many others make it viral among various types of audiences.

Price Plan	Spotify	Tidal
Free plan	free	$9.99 / month
Offline mode	$10.99/ month	$9.99/ month (HiFi), $19.99/ month (HiFi plus)
Premium Student	$5.99/ month	$4.99/ month (HiFi), $9.99/ month (HiFi plus)
Premium Duo	$14/ month	Not available
Premium Family	$16/ month	$14.99/ month (HiFi), $29.99/ month (HiFi plus)
Annual Plan	$99 (via gift card)	Not available

Winner: Spotify wins the price challenge by offering more flexibility in prices and various features.

In the music discovery contest, Spotify is again leading Tidal as it has more options for music recommendations.

However, the Explore option of Tidal and Search option of Spotify works the same, by suggesting the content you searched for, or the newly released music. Tidal also uses various factors to suggest music you might like. These factors include My Daily Discovery, Because You Listened To, My Mixes, and many others.

Whereas, on the other hand, Spotify uses a much stronger algorithm, it identifies the song category, genre, language, and music listening history. On this basis, it suggests more personalized songs.

Music Discovery	Spotify	Tidal
Spotify (Search)Tidal (Explore)	Genre and MoodsMade For YouNew ReleasesTrendingDiscoverRadar	NewTopCross-GenreTidal-Rising
PlaylistRecommendations	Recommended Songs	Recommended Songs
Personalized songs	Release RadarDiscover Weekly	My Daily DiscoverBecause You Listened To
Recommendations forArtists	Fans Also Like	Fans Also LikeInfluencers

Winner: Spotify is the winner due to its hybrid algorithm for song recommendation and more advanced features.

I was amazed to know that, both apps give tough competition to each other in device compatibility. Both devices allow a huge connection with different devices so that you can listen to songs without any limitations.

You can connect Spotify and Tidal with Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS easily. Moreover, these devices specially Spotify with its all old versions, also allow you to listen to music in the car with the option of Android Audio and Apple CarPlay.

The feature of Spotify Connect has crossed the limits with the option to play music on your smart devices, such as Smart TVs, Speaker, watches, and much more. To never let Spotify win this race, Tidal also launched its Tidal Connect feature, through which you can also connect your Tidal account to various music devices.

Winner: There is a tie in the device compatibility test of Spotify vs Tidal because both apps offer almost the same device compatibility.

Although both apps, Spotify and Tidal have a huge importance in the music industry, after going through their various features, I think Spotify is better to use than Tidal. Because Spotify has more music content and is available in more countries.

On the other hand, Tidal being a new music app is still struggling to make its position among the famous music-streaming apps. Spotify won from Tidal by offering better price plans, more discovery features, social sharing options, and many other features.

This was my point of view about both apps. You can select any of them according to your preferences and budget, however, my Spotify vs Tidal guide will help you to choose the best app for yourself.