[omera60]

Hey Everyone,

I’m currently in the market for a streaming service. After looking at my options I’m stuck between Tidal and Spotify. I’m what you guys may call a audiophile so Tidal wins me there with Hi-Fi quality music but I also like my things tidy including technological integrations so this is where Spotify wins as it is BMW Apps ready. There is also the issue of price on Tidal I have to pay $19.99 where as on Spotify I can get a student discount which adds the total to $5 a month. Mobile networks costs are at the bottom of the list so, what do you guys think, any experience with these services?

[RotorOver]

Originally Posted by omera60

Hey Everyone,

I’m currently in the market for a streaming service. After looking at my options I’m stuck between Tidal and Spotify. I’m what you guys may call a audiophile so Tidal wins me there with Hi-Fi quality music but I also like my things tidy including technological integrations so this is where Spotify wins as it is BMW Apps ready. There is also the issue of price on Tidal I have to pay $19.99 where as on Spotify I can get a student discount which adds the total to $5 a month. Mobile networks costs are at the bottom of the list so, what do you guys think, any experience with these services?

I’ve been with Spotify for awhile now and actually have the family plan, so it’s on a bunch of devices in my house (and off at college) with 4 users. I really like that Spotify is supported by BMW and you can navigate through a bunch of functionality on the iDrive screen. Off course it isn’t always seamless, but that is a fault of Apple’s integration into BMW in my case, not Spotify’s fault. I also like that Spotiify has extremely reliable service, a huge database of music and is integrated into other apps like Shazam and Waz. I haven’t tried Tidal, so I ‘m not sure about it, but I can endorse Spotify especially for the student pricing.

[omera60]

Originally Posted by RotorOver

I’ve been with Spotify for a while now and actually have the family plan, so it’s on a bunch of devices in my house (and off at college) with 4 users. I really like that Spotify is supported by BMW and you can navigate through a bunch of functionality on the iDrive screen. Of course, it isn’t always seamless, but that is a fault of Apple’s integration into BMW in my case, not Spotify’s fault. I also like that Spotify has extremely reliable service, a huge database of music and is integrated into other apps like Shazam and Waz. I haven’t tried Tidal, so I ‘m not sure about it, but I can endorse Spotify especially for the student pricing.

Thank you very much for your input, this is exactly what I was looking for. I 'will count this as a vote for Spotify

[Viffermike]

Originally Posted by omera60

Thank you very much for your input, this is exactly what I was looking for. I 'will count this as a vote for Spotify

Also: you'll really only hear a difference in a 2 Series between Spotify Extreme and Tidal if you've upgraded your OEM sound with at least:

- Better speakers
- An amp
- Some method of defeating the OEM DSP/ASD

If you haven't done all of the above, go with Spotify Extreme.

[omera60]

Originally Posted by Viffermike

Also: you'll really only hear a difference in a 2 Series between Spotify Extreme and Tidal if you've upgraded your OEM sound with at least:

- Better speakers
- An amp
- Some method of defeating the OEM DSP/ASD

If you haven't done all of the above, go with Spotify Extreme.

I didn’t do any of those things mainly due to the warranty as I had several cases which needed replacement. So I count this as another vote for Spotify, thank you for the input Mike (hope that’s your real name )

[marierogers07]

I would choose Spotify because of its BMW Apps and getting student discount always speaks in favor of this service. Spotify is constantly updating and audience there is huge: as you told Spotify is all about technological integration while Tidal is much less known.

fast essay writer

[Liandri]

Originally Posted by Viffermike

Also: you'll really only hear a difference in a 2 Series between Spotify Extreme and Tidal if you've upgraded your OEM sound with at least:

- Better speakers
- An amp
- Some method of defeating the OEM DSP/ASD

If you haven't done all of the above, go with Spotify Extreme.

Don't forget Bluetooth codec limits/version. The connection from any phone to F series cars will probably be 4.1 or 4.2 SBC codec which will be around 350kbps so anything from services promising more bitrate will be lost when using BT. My Samsung s9 can't even stay in forced LDAC mode even if I'm using a newer 5.0 device with it. There's alot of nuance to audio quality over wireless right now but tldr Spotify is great if you had to pick just one service. I tried Amazon HD and another HD service recently on my computer with a pair of studio headphones and couldn't tell much of a difference vs Spotify (320kbps Spotify and 800+ 2 other services), so your definitely not going to worry about whatever difference you think is there when your listening inside the horrible soundstage that is a car. Just my 2 cents because I got to the bottom of this a few months ago since I was curious. There was a large difference between Spotify and YouTube though, as YouTube compresses the hell out of music and you end up somewhere around 128kbps which IS noticible

[Boris Poledore]

I believe Spotify is better than Tidal. Spotify has more features and more user-friendly. Now I only use it.

[DistantTea]

I coded out ASD, disconnected my center channel and swapped out my underseats for Ghost "subs". Then I turned off bluetooth and only directly connected my iPhone via USB.

I've been a long time user of Spotify but wanted to try out the best I could get so I did a trial run of Tidal HiFi and Amazon HiFi.

The thing that gave the crown to Spotify is 100%... the built in EQ. Without that EQ Tidal often sounded waaaaay too bright and harsh on the HK system on my M240i. I tried to EQ the car but had very limited success with some songs being painful to my ears and others being muddled. Amazon had similar issues but not as bad but also... screw that service it operates poorly and doesn't integrate with anything.

The nail in the coffin was always going to be the EQ. Without a built in EQ Tidal sounded good on exactly ONE speaker setup in my house and that was the audiophile-lite computer setup I have. Anything that tried to convert the Tidal master tracks to their cheaper lower quality rates would sound so bad it was disheartening. That ruled out pretty much anything bluetooth (other than my airpod pros for some reason).

If you have the audio setup for it Tidal HiFi is amazing but once it's downconverted it sounds like metalic ass.

Spotify with EQ adjustments all day long.

[randmness]

Originally Posted by Liandri

Don't forget Bluetooth codec limits/version. The connection from any phone to F series cars will probably be 4.1 or 4.2 SBC codec which will be around 350kbps so anything from services promising more bitrate will be lost when using BT.

On iPhone, I think the audio quality is higher if youre streaming via CarPlay (which I believe uses WiFi), versus just BT. I haven't tried Spotify's upper quality settings though to see if I could tell a difference though. I think the audio does sound noticeably better streaming via CP (over BT.) With that being said, I'm not sure what codec the headunit uses for the audio streamed via WiFi (or where it maxes out); I've read CD quality (PCM 44.1Khz 16bit stereo; 1,411 kbps) but have never found anything definitive. I imagine the audio quality is probably limited by the lowest speed (or bitrate) in the chain (app streaming bitrate, device streaming speeds, codecs, etc etc.)

With Android/Android Auto (in other cars), the audio can vary based on the device (it can stream via BT, USB, or WiFi.) I believe its based on the device/OEM vs a standardized thing like iOS.

[SG_92]

If you plan on leaving your audio system as is, just go with Spotify.

If you are not taking the time to fix the plethora of issues that are already present in the stock audio systems, you'll be spending money on a quality difference you don't really need or won't even notice.

Spotify has way more features, music and integrations at a superior price.

[IndyBMW]

Go to Bestbuy to get a Tidal subscription... I got a year of the HiFi (their highest quality) for $99

[andyadams222]

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[R_don_abon]

From what I read, the difference in audio quality between tidal and Spotify premium is not enough to warrant double the monthly cost and smaller library of tidal. Tidal is however much better than regular free Spotify.

[instalher]

i have spotify on my phone and the bmw connected app, now how can i stream spotify to my car without going through my phone,, 2018 230i xdrive msport hifi system