One benefit of using music streaming services like Tidal is access to a vast collection of music, including many tracks that I have never heard. Many of these tracks will never be heard. Our objective must be to find the music that we will enjoy the most.
Spotify is the best music streaming service I have used for music discovery. But it still refuses to offer music at CD quality, let alone better, Something Tidal and other music streaming services have been offering for years.
For music discovery, Tidal is where Spotify was three or four years ago, meaning it isn’t bad. Still, you have to get your fingers dirty and not rely on the algorithm, something we should all probably do whatever our streaming services.
Tidal music discovery tools
Within a day or two of subscribing, Tidal will start offering a daily discovery playlist that reminds me of Discover Weekly on Spotify. I don’t actually use it that much, as I find it to be a bit hit-and-miss. Tidal will also generate a new arrivals playlist, which is the same as the release radar on Spotify. Tidal will also generate seven daily mixes, though they are never a completely fresh list every day.
These playlists are my starting point for discovering new music. I aim to listen to my Discover weekly playlist every week, favouring the tracks I like so that the Tidal algorithm has more data to select future tunes for me.
I then listen to tracks from my daily mixes and various playlists from those provided by Tidal, playlists I have created, and playlists created and shared by other Tidal users. I like my favourite tunes as I go.
Tidal also provides tracks and artists’ radio, which are nothing more than a playlist that Tidal thinks is similar to that artist or track. I usually listen to four or five tracks per playlist as it helps me spread my net further.
Tidal also provides alerts of new singles or albums released by artists you have liked, another useful source of ideas.
Another benefit of favouriting tracks is that on Tidal, like on Spotify, they act as their own playlist, allowing you to listen to these tracks again and potentially filtering out the better tracks from the good tracks. Occasionally, I will unfavourite tracks if I realise they are not for me.
Conclusion
I think it is harder work on Tidal than Spotify, and that might even be a good thing. It means you have to reflect and consider where to look for new tracks, giving you some semblance of control over the algorithm as you give it some direction of your music tastes.
In my experience, the Tidal algorithm can offer some surprising suggestions. Give them a listen. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Why don’t you try to take control of your music discovery, regardless of what music streaming service you are using?
You can sign up for the CTNET Newsletter here.