Tidal CEO Jesse Dorogusker recently revealed the music streaming service will soon have the be adding the option to listen to audio in hi-res lossless in the FLAC format, though it will be exclusive to their HiFi Plus subscriber base.
Though Tidal Plus HiFi has always offered lossless FLAC audio at CD quality they only streamed its Masters collection of better-than-CD quality hi-res music in the MQA format. Tidal users have long had issues with this, as MQA isn’t truly lossless while FLAC is.
Adding to the problem, if you want to experience MQA at its highest level you need something like a DAC/amp to fully decode it.
Dorogusker’s statements come days after the company that oversees MQA as a format announced they are heading into administration, raising questions about the future of MQA at Tidal, which is the only streaming platform that uses it.
Moving to support hi-res lossless FLAC would see Tidal join Apple Music, Amazon Music, Qobuz and Deezer with hi-res lossless streaming. If Tidal dropped MQA it would lose them major differentiation. And as much as MQA has plenty of critics, some also think it sounds better than its lossless hi-res rivals.
Plus, Apple and Amazon provide their full hi-res catalogue at their regular price, and Tidal would make it a pay-for-play upgrade at almost double the cost of those platforms.
Meanwhile, the wait is still on for Spotify HiFi snd their promise of lossless audio.
