2023-07-20 18:46:13
Tidal has announced that starting in August 2023, it will adopt “FLAC Hi-Res”, a lossless audio format. For Tidal iOS “Early Access Program” participants, high-resolution content in FLAC format is now available. Simon Cohen of DigitalTrends reported his experience with this change through the beta version of the streaming music app.
What will happen to MQA content on Tidal?
How FLAC file playback will work on Tidal following the creator of the MQA format goes bankrupt. Source: Vitor Valeri
Embora Andy Madden, do site WhatHiFi, have reported that a Tidal spokesperson said the “existing MQA catalog will continue to be available on the platform,” Simon Cohen of DigitalTrends expressed concerns regarding that statement. Apparently, the streaming platform intends to withdraw its content in MQA format in an “invisible” way, without users noticing. That was the conclusion that Simon reached following observing what was changed in the application.
Simon reported that while beta testing Tidal for iOS, he noticed the replacement of the “Master” designation with “Max” on the music playback screen. Previously, the “Master” description was used to tell you when a song in MQA (“Master Quality Authenticated”) was playing, but with this change to “Max”, everything got confused.
Replacement of “Master” with “Max” on the music playback screen of the Tidal app for iOS. Source: DigitalTrends (Image by Simon Cohen)
According to Tidal, “Max” means that the user will be “getting the best quality version of any song” on the streaming platform. However, this “best quality” can be both FLAC and MQA and it is not possible to know through the application which format is being reproduced. The only way to find out is through the use of a USB DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) that somehow signals when the MQA format is being transmitted, either through an LED, which glows in a specific color (usually purple), or a screen, which displays the information of the reproduced file.
There is no way to filter the songs considered “Max” according to the file format (MQA or FLAC), according to Simon. He says that the application only provides three options to regulate the quality of the transmission: Low, High and Maximum.
Streaming options for streaming music on the Tidal iOS app. Source: DigitalTrends (Image by Simon Cohen)
There will certainly be cases where we will have the same song in MQA and FLAC at the same time in the Tidal library. In this case, according to the spokesman for the streaming platform, the following will happen:
If there is a track on both and a user has selected Max, the HiRes FLAC will be prioritized over the MQA version. If a HiRes FLAC version (at least a 24-bit, 48 kHz FLAC version) does not exist, the MQA version is the source file.
While Tidal has said it will prioritize FLAC over MQA when playing music in both formats, Simon reports that all of his favorite tracks that were previously labeled “Master” still cause the LED on his USB DAC to indicate that a file is playing in “Master Quality Authenticated”. In this case, there is a chance that the platform has not yet added the FLAC version of these songs.
At the same time, Simon says that John Mayer’s 2006 album Continuum, which was previously in MQA format, now only features the FLAC version. To find out, he used his USB DAC to determine the format of songs.
Will Tidal get rid of the MQA or not?
It is believed that Tidal does not inform which file format is being played when displaying “Max” on the application’s playback screen because there is the intention at some point to simply remove the songs in MQA from the platform, leaving only the tracks in FLAC. That is, it is not unlikely that in the near future your USB DAC will no longer indicate the playback of tracks in “Master Quality Authenticated” when using the Tidal streaming service.
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