When comparing cmd.fm vs TIDAL, the Slant community recommends TIDAL for most people. In the question“What are the best music streaming services?” TIDAL is ranked 6th while cmd.fm is ranked 24th. 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
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Pros
Pro Easy music discovery
Just type in the command to play a particular genre you are interested in and it will play that style of music randomly. This allows for a way that you can discover new music you may not be familiar with.
Pro Fun terminal-like interface
Using a terminal interface as the front end of the player is quite the unique twist for a music player on the web. It can be fun for those that are/aren't familiar with such an interface due to how original and easy it is.
Pro Fast interactivity
A fast music service geared towards terminal users. The premise being, that you input specific "terminal" commands to listen to particular genres or artists. This can be a quick way of finding and playing music for those familiar with a terminal interface.
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
Cons
Con Limited genres
For the available genres the user can pick from, there are only so many listed. Any more fine grained controls of being able to play genres not listed is not supported. This means the eclectic and more niche genres can only be played by directly selecting the bands that play that style of music.
Con Only uses the Soundcloud music streaming service
There is no way to get other licensed music, you can only play what is available on the Soundcloud music streaming service.
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
