When comparing TIDAL vs Mixcloud, the Slant community recommends TIDAL for most people. In the question“What are the best music streaming services?” TIDAL is ranked 5th while Mixcloud is ranked 16th. The most important reason people chose TIDAL is:
The Tidal music streaming service has a maximum streaming quality of 1,411Kbps bit rate with FLAC-formatted lossless files. This is quite an upgrade compared to most music streaming services, which go at about 320Kbps bit rate.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Amazing quality
The Tidal music streaming service has a maximum streaming quality of 1,411Kbps bit rate with FLAC-formatted lossless files. This is quite an upgrade compared to most music streaming services, which go at about 320Kbps bit rate.
Pro Pays artists more
As of March 2018, TIDAL pays the artists 2/3 more than Apple Music and 3 times more than Spotify, for an equivalent catalog and subscription price. (40M songs on TIDAL and Apple Music vs. 30M on Spotify, $9.99/mo for all 3). Napster is the only service that pays the artists more than TIDAL.
Pro Discounted student subscription
Tidal offers a 50% discount on monthly subscriptions for students with a valid university email account.
Pro Awsome desktop app
Pro Built-in audio search
The Tidal music streaming service mobile app has a built-in audio search, similar to Shazaam and Soundhound.
Pro Military/veteran discount a BIG plus
Pro Get one-month free Hi-Fi (FLAC, 24-bit music)
Almost all if not most songs are 24-bit FLAC files, "Master" is an ever higher quality
Pro Wide & varied content
There is a massive and varied range of content across many styles, genres & vintages all easily found via tags and particularly effective recommendations.
Pro Totally Free
You're free to listen and upload as much as you like, unlike Soundcloud.
Pro Sound Quality
Music sounds crisp and punchy when streaming/playback (if you're using quality headphones/speakers).
Pro Friendly Interface
It's easy to use the simple and beautiful platform, unlike the Archive.org.
Cons
Con Songs may take some time to load
the Tidal music streaming service may take up to 10 seconds of buffering to load and play a song, sometimes even stopping a song mid-way to buffer.
Con No free tier
The Tidal music streaming service has no free tier available. Only a 7-day trial. While the trial is helpful for learning what the service has to offer, it may not allow for a complete picture due to the time limit.
Con Offline isn’t offline and mobile data is consumed in one song
Con Hi-FI Can be expensive for some
Con Ads even in paid Pro account
Free and Pro Accounts put ads in your content. If you don't want ads, you have to pay 6.99 USD/mo for the Premium account.
Con Engagement tools just for paid accounts
If you want to grow and monitor your audience in the platform, you'll need to sign the Pro account, which costs $15/month or $135/year.
Con Data charges by surprise
Watch out for those data charges if you're on the move.