Qobuz vs Spotify vs TIDAL (Ranked & Scored)

• Sound quality is a crucial factor for serious music lovers when choosing a streaming service
• Qobuz claims to offer sound quality nearly 30 times superior to Spotify.
• We review Qobuz against Spotify and TIDAL

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Streaming has forever changed the way we listen to music. Instead of purchasing individual tracks, either physically or digitally downloaded, subscribers pay a monthly fee to have access to a huge catalog of tracks.

Spotify dominates the music streaming subscription services, just like Google dominates the internet search engines–even my mom has a Spotify account!

But what happens when you want better-sounding audio – then the choice is a high-resolution audio streaming service like TIDAL or Qobuz. Let’s look at what they each offer and which service is best for you.

Verdict

Spotify is A Clear Winner (Unless You Are an Audiophile)

For most music streaming subscribers, Spotify is still the best service to sign up to. Spotify is available in more markets, offers more affordable plans, and boasts a slicker user interface for the casual listener.

For audiophiles, Qobuz offers the best-sounding streams, while TIDAL is the best choice for DJs as it is the only one which offers integration with popular DJ platforms like Serato or Traktor.

Qobuz vs Spotify vs TIDAL Side by Side

	Qobuz	Spotify	TIDAL
Monthly Price Plan starts at	Studio $10.83 Sublime $20.83 (Stream & purchase)	$9.99	TIDAL HiFi $9.99 TIDAL HiFi Plus $19.99
Free Subscription Plan	No	Yes (with ads)	Yes (with ads)
Student Plan	n/a	$4.99	TIDAL HiFi $4.99 TIDAL Hifi Plus $9.99
Family Plan	Studio $17..99	$15.99	TIDAL HiFi $14.99 TIDAL HiFi Plus $29.99
Countries Available	24	184	61
Size of Library	Over 100 million	Over 80 million	Over 90 million
Max Bitrate	6,971Kbps	320Kbps	1,411Kbps
Hi-Res Content	FLAC 24-Bit up to 192kHz	n/a	HiFi: FLAC 16-Bit/44.1kHz HiFiPlus: MQA 24-bit/192kHz

Spotify

Spotify is the world’s most popular music streaming platform and boasts over 515 million active listeners every month (210 of which are premium subscribers) in 184 countries.

Only the giant that is Apple Music comes close to that many territories with 163 countries.

Originally a Swedish audio platform launched in 2008 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorenzton, Spotify has amassed a catalog of tracks that in 2022 was estimated to be over 80 million strong and growing every day.

All the tracks are available for free, although users can subscribe to Spotify Premium if they want to listen offline and without ads.

Spotify is known for its sleek user interface, the discovery algorithm that tailors music based on your preferences, and a strong online community that includes shared playlists and suggestions.

Unfortunately, Spotify HiFi, the high-resolution streaming option promised for so long, is still MIA at the time of writing. The best audio quality you can expect from Spotify is CD quality at 320kbps, the highest MP3 allows for.

TIDAL

TIDAL is another music streaming platform that originated in Europe, this time by a Swedish and Norwegian tech company known as Aspiro, which already owned the popular Norwegian music service WiMP which was also available in Sweden.

Aspiro launched the TIDAL brand in October 2014 in the UK, the US, and Canada. But TIDAL is most famous for its association with Jay-Z when his company Project Panther Bidco LTD, bought Aspiro and acquired TIDAL in January 2015.

TIDAL was launched in several more territories across Europe and, eight months later, claimed to have gained its first million subscribers. (This figure was later disputed and said to be much closer to 350,000 subscribers).

TIDAL quickly gained ground as a streaming service with higher-quality audio than its peers like iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify (Amazon and iTunes have since moved into the high-quality lossless music streaming markets).

TIDAL is also known as the artist’s platform, with exclusive videos and music from many artists and paying higher royalties than other streaming services.

Unlike the other two services we look at, TIDAL is integrated into many DJ platforms, including Serato, RekordBox, Virtual DJ, and Dennon DJ, to allow DJs access to the largest collection of high-definition audio tracks in their sets.

In 2021, Jay-Z and several of the artist owners of TIDAL sold off the majority of their shares to Square Inc, a US-based digital payments company.

TIDAL is currently available in 61 territories worldwide, and it is estimated there are currently 5 million users of the now Square-owned service.

Experts estimate TIDAL’s market share to sit between 1% – 2%, much lower than the 31% market share commanded by Spotify.

Qobuz

Although many of you may think Qobuz to be the new kid on the block when it comes to music streaming subscription services, it was launched at about the same time as Spotify and WiMP, the precursor to TIDAL.

Originally founded in France in 2008 as a service to purchase and rent music, the service expanded to other European countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, and Italy between 2014 and 2017.

In 2018, Qobuz was active in eleven countries before launching the service in the United States in 2019. Quboz has since expanded to other territories such as Australia and New Zealand, and at the time of writing, was available in 24 countries globally.

With around 200,000 users worldwide, Qobuz certainly isn’t the largest of the music streaming subscription services, but that was never their intention. The Qobuz platform was designed for audiophiles rather than the masses. 

Even the US Managing Director of Qobuz, Dan Mackta, admits “We (Qobuz) are not competing with the big guys. Our aspiration is to reach 1% of the market.”

Not only is Qobuz the first ever music service to offer both 16-bit and 24-bit audio streams, but you can also purchase the tracks to keep forever whether you continue subscribing.

Spotify and TIDAL, by comparison, only allow access to any downloaded tracks while you continue with your subscription plan.

Qobuz vs TIDAL vs Spotify: Which Offers the Best Subscription Deal?

If you are on a tight budget and looking for unlimited music streaming at the lowest price possible, then Spotify is the answer, as it offers a free subscription plan.

You will have to put up with some often annoying adverts, though, and there is only the option to skip 6 tracks every hour, which Spotify offers you. And the audio quality, although pretty passable, is limited to a maximum of 160kbps.

Another option for those with limited budgets is the TIDAL free plan recently introduced (but only in the USA), which offers a similar 160kbps audio rate to Spotify Free with what TIDAL claims to be “limited interruptions” (sounds better than adverts, I guess!)

Spotify Premium

There are plenty of reasons to upgrade to the Spotify Premium plan ($9.99 a month), much improved audio streams ( approx 320kbps), offline listening, the ability to search for tracks on mobile devices and skip as many unwanted tracks as you want, plus of course the big bonus of no adverts.

For even better value, there is a Spotify Premium Family Plan which allows up to six people (normally from the same household) access to the service for $15.99, a Duo Plan ($12.99) for two people to access your plan, and a student discount plan is also available for just $4.99 a month.

TIDAL

TIDAL does offer better audio rates with their two paid-for plans, TIDAL Hi-FI and TIDAL Hi-Fi Plus.

TIDAL Hi-Fi is the same $9.99 a month as Spotify Premium but offers a better bitrate of up to 1411 kbps (CD Quality) and loses the ads while offering online listening with unlimited skips and throws in a bonus 650 K+ videos.

The family plan, which allows up to six members of your household access to the TIDAL library, comes in a dollar cheaper than Spotify at $14.99.

All in all, the TIDAL Hi-Fi Plan offers better value for money than Spotify Premium as it offers all the same benefits but at a higher bit rate.

But if you are reading this post, you are probably more interested in the high-resolution music services offered by TIDAL.

The TIDAL Hi-Fi Plus plan takes the bitrate up to 9216kbps for high-resolution audio via the TIDAL Masters, which supports MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) technology.

This all comes at an increased cost, though of $19.99 a month for the individual plan or $29.99 for the family plan.

TIDAL offers 50% discounts on both plans to students in certain regions and also offers a military discount for those serving in the armed forces.

If you are happy with excellent CD quality audio up to 1411 kbps, then TIDAL Hi-Fi offers excellent value for money and is competitive with similar streaming services that may have slightly lower bitrates (Spotify, we are looking at you!).

Qobuz

Enter the latest addition to the high-resolution music streaming scene, and if you want hi-res, you are gonna have to pay for it.

Qobuz is the most expensive of the three services we are looking at, but you do get stunning-quality audio at all levels.

Qobuz doesn’t currently offer a free plan; there’s only a free trial option at the end, of which you have to pay to continue listening.

However, their cheapest plan, the Qobuz Studio plan at $10.83 a month, has the lowest bitrate of 320kbps (MP£0), the same as Spotify Premiums’ highest audio quality. 

And on both Qobuz plans, the quality goes all the way up to 192 kHz Hi-Res ( FLAC 24-bit/9216kbps).

For an extra 84 cents a month, you are getting access to one of the largest high-resolution libraries in the world. Although the family subscription plan at $17.99 is more expensive than both Spotify and TIDAL’s standard family plans.

Qobuz currently doesn’t offer any student discount scheme either.

Upgrading to the Qobuz Studio Sublime plan doesn’t offer as many benefits as upgrading to Spotify’s Premium Plan or TIDAL’s Hi-Fi Plus and features the same sound quality and library but gives you a 60% discount if you should want to purchase the high-resolution tracks. 

WINNER: Spotify (if you’re happy with low-res sound quality!)
DRAW for Hi-Res TIDAl & Qobuz

Qobuz vs TIDAL vs Spotify: Royalties For Artists

Artists are never going to receive as many royalties from a track being streamed as they would if it was purchased.

But for some music fans, just how much the artist will receive from streaming their tracks can decide which streaming platform they choose.

	Spotify	Qobuz	TIDAL
Royalty rates per Stream	$0.003	Unknown Estimated $0.04	$0.013
Streams Required to make $1	314	25	78

Spotify is notoriously low for their payouts to artists. Despite being the most widely used service, Spotify pays out less than half a cent per stream, ranging from $0.001 to $0.008, depending on factors such as location and whether the user was online.

The average is $0.004 per stream, but having said that, an artist is more likely to get more streams on Spotify due to the huge user base.

TIDAL markets itself as an artists’ platform, so it’s no surprise they were the first music streaming service to pay out more than one cent a stream, almost 3 times as much as its competitors.

Other initiatives from TIDAL include the ”Direct Artist Payouts” scheme, which reroutes up to 10% of each TIDAL Hi-Fi listener’s monthly subscription to their most streamed artist every month. 

Note: Although, unfortunately, at the time of writing, this scheme had been closed down, with TIDAL blaming it for not making as much revenue as they estimated to redistribute!

Qobuz has been quite secretive with what royalties they pay out. There have been figures such as $0.04 mentioned in articles that claim Qobuz is giving more back to artists than other services.

Unfortunately, the smaller size of the Qobuz service does mean artists will have much fewer listeners to stream. 

But Qobuz does offer the feature for artists to sell their music on the service, which of course, brings in much more PPL money.

The negatives out there argue if Qobuz was the size of Spotify, they would be paying a much lower fee per stream to the artist – you just can’t win, can you?

WINNER: TIDAL 

Qobuz vs TIDAL vs Spotify: Library

Spotify

Spotify has the largest library, with over 120 million tracks, and growing daily. Many artists now promote their new releases as available on Spotify due to the size of the Spotify user base,  but none in Hi-Res Audio quality.

Spotify covers various genres and moods and offers personalized recommendations, playlists, podcasts, and radio stations.

Expanding at an impressive rate of 60,000 songs a day, Spotify covers over 59 different music genres curated into over 4.5 billion playlists. You can find anything from Pop to Latino, Funk, Soul, and Bollywood.

I personally like the fact some music genres are dedicated to activities like cooking or gaming, although this may be off-putting for some more serious musos.

TIDAL

TIDAL isn’t far behind Spotify and now boasts over 100 million tracks and 650K+ videos, including more than 250,000 in Hi-Res Audio quality with TIDAL Masters.

The entire TIDAL collection can be found in the “Explore” section, split into just 20 genres compared to Spotify’s 59 different genres.

The TIDAL genres, though, stick with musical categories such as hip-hop, R&B, rap, and electronic and offer exclusive content, live concerts, podcasts, and videos.

Although you will find everything from blues and reggae to heavy rock, as you would expect from a service that Jay-Z relaunched, the platform has a very comprehensive hip-hop section.

And finally, independent music is given equal prominence with TIDAL Rising, a section devoted to new artists in various genres and their new tracks and albums.

Qobuz

Qobuz has a library of over 100 million tracks, including more than 2 million in Hi-Res Audio quality. Qobuz focuses on genres such as classical, jazz, blues, rock, and pop and offers curated playlists, editorial content, and exclusive interviews.

From my experience, you will find a great mix of hits and lesser-known songs on Qobuz, as it was designed as a serious music platform for audiophiles.

However, some of the latest pop releases or niche artists that feature on Spotify are not available on Qobuz. 

Unfortunately, geoblocking and licensing issues can often mean many of your favorite tracks are unavailable on Qobuz. And unlike TIDAL and Spotify, there’s no way to transfer your own playlist into the Qobuz library.

Despite that, more of the 100 million + tracks are available in the highest resolution and offer you the chance to listen to more tracks as they were intended.

WINNER: Spotify (for pure selection) & Qobuz (for high resolution)

Qobuz vs TIDAL vs Spotify: Audio Quality

Unfortunately for Spotify, this is a two-horse race. Spotify’s maximum bitrate of 320kbps lossy MP3 can’t compete with the 16-bit and 24-bit audio of TIDAL and Qobuz.

Spotify only streams and downloads tracks in MP3 format, a lossy format that compresses the sound and discards some information.

Spotify’s highest sound quality is 320 kbps, lower than CD quality (1411 kbps) and much lower than Hi-Res Audio quality (up to 9216 kbps).

Qobuz has an MP3 option at 320kbps for when data may be limited or your bandwidth is compromised, but Qobuz is all about the hi-res and a CD quality 16-bit/44.1khz option.

Qobuz claims to offer the best sound quality among the three platforms, as it is the only one that streams and downloads tracks in 24-bit Hi-Res Audio, up to 29 times better than Spotify’s 320 kbps quality.

Qobuz also supports FLAC, WAV, AIFF, and ALAC formats, which are lossless and preserve the original sound of the recordings.

TIDAL offers AAC quality at 160kbps, lossless CD quality at 1411kbps hi-res quality at 2304-9216kbps.

There is a key difference in how both services deliver their hi-res content, with TIDAL opting for the MQA standard, which often requires specialized encoders for playback, either software or hardware.

The FLAC content of Qobuz can be playback on almost any device by comparison. 

TIDAL supports Hi-Res Audio quality with its TIDAL Masters feature, which uses MQA technology to deliver studio-quality sound in smaller files. TIDAL also supports lossless FLAC and ALAC formats, which offer CD-quality sound.

The MQA technology has gathered many positive reviews but also negative opinions on audiophile review websites. Many argue Qobuz sounds more natural, while TIDAL can sound quite off. 

FLAC and MQA offer the same sound quality in practice, but the Qobuz tracks sounded richer, more detailed, and crisper on the lossless tracks.

WINNER: Qobuz

Qobuz vs TIDAL vs Spotify: Ease of Use and Interface

All three services offer clean and easy-to-use interfaces, with personalized playlists and recommendations based on the user’s listening history.

Qobuz and TIDAL have a more minimalist interface than Spotify, which has a more vibrant and colorful design. However, this is largely a matter of personal preference.

Qobuz offers a user-friendly interface that is clean and intuitive. Navigating through the app or website is smooth and straightforward.

The search function is efficient, allowing users to easily find their favorite tracks, albums, or artists. Qobuz also provides curated playlists and personalized recommendations based on the user’s listening history, enhancing the user experience.

TIDAL also offers a visually appealing, user-friendly interface. The well-organized layout simplifies browsing through different sections, such as playlists, albums, and genres.

TIDAL’s search function is powerful and accurate, helping users find the desired music. 

Spotify is renowned for its user-friendly interface, designed to provide a seamless experience for new and experienced users.

The app’s layout is clean and organized, allowing users to navigate through their library and playlists to discover new music.

Spotify’s robust search function delivers accurate results and offers various filters to refine searches. The personalized playlists, such as Discover Weekly and Release Radar, further enhance the ease of discovering new music

WINNER: Spotify

Qobuz vs Tidal vs Spotify: Music Discovery

Music discovery is a crucial aspect of a music streaming service, as it allows users to explore new artists, genres, and songs. 

Qobuz provides users with an excellent music discovery experience. The service offers curated playlists catering to moods, genres, and themes.

Additionally, Qobuz provides personalized recommendations based on the user’s listening habits, helping them discover new music that aligns with their taste.

The platform also includes editorial content, such as artist interviews and news articles, further enhancing the music discovery experience.

TIDAL also offers a solid music discovery feature. The service provides curated playlists and recommendations based on the user’s listening history, helping them explore new artists and genres.

TIDAL’s exclusive content and collaborations with artists contribute to a unique music discovery experience, allowing users to access exclusive albums and live performances unavailable on other platforms.

Spotify excels in music discovery, offering various features and algorithms to help users explore new music.

The Discover Weekly and Release Radar playlists provide personalized recommendations based on the user’s listening habits and preferences. Spotify’s “Related Artists” and “Fans Also Like” sections on artist profiles help users discover similar artists. 

The “Browse” section offers a vast collection of playlists based on genres, moods, and themes, enabling users to find new music easily.

Qobuz and TIDAL provide curated playlists and personalized recommendations, with TIDAL’s exclusive content adding an extra dimension.

Spotify’s algorithms and playlists, such as Discover Weekly and Release Radar, make it a standout platform for music discovery. 

WINNER: Spotify

Qobuz vs TIDAL vs Spotify: Supported Devices

Regarding compatibility with various devices, Qobuz, TIDAL, and Spotify offer support for a wide range of platforms to ensure users can access their music anytime, anywhere.

All three services have web players available and desktop support for PC and Mac, plus Android and iOS apps. Spotify even has a Linux version, but to be honest, who uses Linux anymore?

All three of the services also support Google Chromecast and Apple Airplay 2, making it easy to stream your tunes around your house and in the car, too, with support for both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Spotify was the first to launch a Connect service, allowing Spotify Premium subscribers to stream directly to speakers, televisions, or audio systems.

It’s become a big selling feature of many premium brands, including Sonos, for those wanting to stream their Spotify around the house.

If you want to stream 24-bit hi-res audio to those Sonos speakers, you will need to choose Qobuz as, at the moment, it’s the only high-resolution streaming service supported by Sonos.

Qobuz support is also integrated into many of the major hi-fi and audio manufacturers’ new equipment, including notable brands such as Arcam, Bang & Olufsen, Bowers & Wilkins, Cambridge Audio, Cyrus, and Yamaha, to name but a few.

With MQA technology not being as mainstream as other audio standards, often meaning you need an extra decoder, streaming 24-bit audio from your TIDAL service can be a bit trickier.

Although TIDAl has a TIDAL Connect feature similar to that of Spotify, it doesn’t support the hi-res streams of MQA or the spatial Dolby Atmos.

Instead, you will need to find some high-end audio equipment that boasts MQA technology and TIDAL compatibility, although fortunately, there is more emerging from high-end hi-fi manufacturers.

DJ Support

Where TIDAL really excels is the compatibility with DJ equipment. Imagine having access to over 100 million tracks while you DJ.

Unfortunately, Spotify withdrew all support for DJ platforms in 2021 and even forbid DJing with Spotify in their Terms of Service (you could always try the Spotify AI DJ feature, but it’s just an automated fade-in/fade-out on your tracks suitable only for smaller house parties.)

TIDAL, by comparison, supports the incredibly popular DJ platforms of Serato, Pioneer Rekordbox, Dennon DJ, Virtual DJ, and others.

The only other “legal” option for DJs wanting to use the huge online catalogs of songs in their set would be to purchase the hi-res tracks from Qobuz.

However, even with the 60% discount on the Studio Sublime plan, this can very quickly get expensive.

WINNER: TIDAL 

Qobuz vs Spotify vs Tidal: The Final Winner

For 99% of music listeners, Spotify is still one of the best, if not the BEST, choices for a music streaming service.

Spotify offers a variety of price plans to fit every pocket, even a free plan (although with limitations), a huge library of varied tracks, an excellent algorithm for new music discovery, and an easy-to-use interface.

Spotify is the Netflix of audio and has even overtaken Apple as the world’s number-one music distribution service.

However, if you want higher-quality audiophile audio, Spotify isn’t quite there.

Both TIDAL and Qobuz offer similar high-quality audio services; there’s very little to choose between the audio quality.

Price-wise, both services are similar, with Qobuz being slightly more competitive with the highest quality audio across all their plans.

However, the big winner for Qobuz as the premium hi-res audio streaming service is the ability to purchase the hi-res tracks and actually own your own music again.

If I am going to pay extra to listen to better-quality audio, I want the right to own it too!

Need more details? Take a look at our comprehensive comparison between TIDAL vs Spotify!