WSJ: Apple in talks to buy Tidal

Talks are 'exploratory'.
Link to summary of WSJ article in Engadget
Link to summary of WSJ article in Engadget
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Exactly. I was going to say the same thing.
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HA! Doubtful.....
MOG was great.... bought by Beats... sucked.... bought by Apple.... died.....
I expect the same. Buy the competition then kill it.....
Sony XA-5400ES SACD
Pass XP-22 pre, X600.5 amps
Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers, SPOD spikes
Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables
Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
Three 20 amp circuits.
I was anti-Tidal, anti-streaming for my main rigs for a while and my attitude has changed in the last 6-months and have grown quite fond of Tidal.
The purchase of Tidal by JayZ has turned into a bit of a fiasco
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/03/is-jay-z-eyeing-an-exit-from-tidal
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/03/31/jay-z-sues-previous-owners-music-service-tidal/82460988/
So I will be keeping an eye out
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Gear on standby: Melody 101 tube pre, Unison Research Simply Italy Integrated
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erat interfectorem cesar et **** dictatorem dicere a
I dunno Skip, nobody is buying 2 cd's a month, maybe that's why they are disappearing. Not enough good music these days to warrant 1 cd a month if you ask me.
It's not just the 20 bucks, it's all cumulative for the average joe. All these services add up, Neflix, cable, music services, cell phones, security, identity protection, online protection, etc. Simple economics in my view when the cost of simply living keeps going up and your wages stay stagnant or go down. You then start prioritizing things.
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B&k 1420
lsi 9's
Family Room| Marantz AV7704| Usher Dancer Mini - 2 DMD Mains |Usher Dancer Mini-x DMD's Surrounds | Usher BE-616 DMD Center | SVS Ultra Rear Surrounds | Parasound Halo A21 | Parsound Halo A52+ | MIT Shotgun S3's | Dual SVS SB 4000 Ultras | Oppo UDP 203 | Directv Genie HD DVR | Samsung 75" Q8 QLED | PSAudio Stellar GCD | Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ | Lumin U1 Mini | HP Elite Slice PC | ROON'd for life |
ManCave: HT:Polk LSiM 706VR3 LSiM 703's LSiM 702's|| Marantz AV7002 AV PrePro Sunfire TGA-7401| Sony PS4 Pro| Sony PS4 Pro|SVS PB13 Ultra| Oppo UDP 203 | Music Hall MMF 5.3se TT w/ Soundsmith Carmen | Samsung 55" SUHD TV | Sony PS4
Patio | Polk Atrium 8's | Yamaha R-N303BL |
Office BlueSound Node| KEF LS50 | Peactree Nova 125SE |
Bedroom | Focal 905's | Chromecast Audio |
Garage | Polk Monitor 5B's
Closet Yamaha M80 | 2 Polk MP3K subs| Yaqin MC100B with Shuguang Treasures KT 88's & CV181Z's | Tesla E83CC's | Marantz 2252B | Marantz 2385 |Polk SDA SRS 2.3 | LSiM 705's |
Many are just one hit wonders for me and I'm not really interested in the whole CD. I've tried streaming services many times on my big rigs and have never really like any of them until Tidal.
I have a large collection of music ripped to hard drives and my NAS. Along with totes and CD cases of discs. Still when doing shows you just can't have it all. This LSAF was the first year I had Tidal. Paired with my collection there wasn't anything I was not able to play on request by the listeners.
I tried Tidal when it was first available here in the US and it was lacking, but now I rarely come across anything that won't show up in Tidal.
My Simaudio DAC automatically will display the recorded media sampling as it plays songs. Tidal always displays 16/44.
Just my .02
---cheers
Desktop rig: LSi7, Polk 110sub, Dayens Ampino amp, W4S DAC/pre, Sonos, JRiver
Gear on standby: Melody 101 tube pre, Unison Research Simply Italy Integrated
Gone to new homes: (Matt Polk's)Threshold Stasis SA12e monoblocks, Pass XA30.5 amp, Usher MD2 speakers, Dynaudio C4 platinum speakers, Modwright LS100 (voltz), Simaudio 780D DAC
erat interfectorem cesar et **** dictatorem dicere a
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Think about it this way. Of lot of you own several thousand CDs. Let's say 5000 is a really good collection. How much does that cost? @15 a pop that 75k, @10 a pop (more realistic nowadays) that's 50 k.
I own about 500 CDs, which is way more than most people I know. So I still need to 4500 CDs at the tune of 45k to get a really nice collection.
If I have tidal for the next 40 years, that's 9600k. A savings of 35k.
Now of course prices will go up with inflation, and CDs are forever. But streaming is her to stay, and prices will stay competitive. And even if I do this for five years and decide nah I'm going back to CDs, I only missed out on 120 CDs, just a drop in the bucket.
I love the SQ of tidal, and most of the other elements have drastically improved. Not quite as good as Spotify on the extras, but very competitive, and SQ trumps all that for me. So I hope if apple does buy tidal, they don't eff it up. I think they could bring lots of improvements, but only time will tell...
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Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds
Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable
Kitchen
Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's
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Now that's the point isn't it. They pretty much copy everyone else and make everything proprietary around their software. Granted they cater to the more marketing side, graphic design and such,
Personally I don't see how any of their products transformed landscapes, except like I said, in the graphic design fields. I'm not an apple hater, just think the hype far outweighs the worth.
They had something way back when, but others have caught up and it's now a more crowded field.
Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds
Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable
Kitchen
Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's
The iPhone might be even more radical. Did u ever try to use an old blackberry smart phone before the iPhone? My wife had one for work. It was awful, basically useless. Then the iPhone came along...
How can u eat at a restaurant or go to any public place and say that Apple hasn't transformed the landscape? Everywhere u look people are on their smartphone. And many of those are still iPhones, and the ones that aren't exist because of the iPhone. U may not like smartphones, but they have changed many aspects of modern life, and that wouldn't have happened without the iPhone.
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I don't use Apple and don't like the way I can't change a battery or add memory but I can't deny that their model has been successful to date.
Family Room| Marantz AV7704| Usher Dancer Mini - 2 DMD Mains |Usher Dancer Mini-x DMD's Surrounds | Usher BE-616 DMD Center | SVS Ultra Rear Surrounds | Parasound Halo A21 | Parsound Halo A52+ | MIT Shotgun S3's | Dual SVS SB 4000 Ultras | Oppo UDP 203 | Directv Genie HD DVR | Samsung 75" Q8 QLED | PSAudio Stellar GCD | Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ | Lumin U1 Mini | HP Elite Slice PC | ROON'd for life |
ManCave: HT:Polk LSiM 706VR3 LSiM 703's LSiM 702's|| Marantz AV7002 AV PrePro Sunfire TGA-7401| Sony PS4 Pro| Sony PS4 Pro|SVS PB13 Ultra| Oppo UDP 203 | Music Hall MMF 5.3se TT w/ Soundsmith Carmen | Samsung 55" SUHD TV | Sony PS4
Patio | Polk Atrium 8's | Yamaha R-N303BL |
Office BlueSound Node| KEF LS50 | Peactree Nova 125SE |
Bedroom | Focal 905's | Chromecast Audio |
Garage | Polk Monitor 5B's
Closet Yamaha M80 | 2 Polk MP3K subs| Yaqin MC100B with Shuguang Treasures KT 88's & CV181Z's | Tesla E83CC's | Marantz 2252B | Marantz 2385 |Polk SDA SRS 2.3 | LSiM 705's |
Tony I'll use your own argument against you, let's say I grant you that Apple is only a marketing company (I actually disagree strongly but for the purposes here I'll choose not to debate that point). If that's the case, then looking at the numbers you'd have to concede that they're the best marketing company in the world today (if that's all they do and they're the most valuable company in the world today then they must be the most successful at it). So if you're like most us audiophiles and really love the idea of lossless music, wouldn't you want the best marketing company in the world selling that concept to the masses? People often accuse Apple of taking a simple concept and making it sound more significant than it really is, what nobody ever disputes however is that it's highly effective...wouldn't you want the same push behind lossless music?
As for my other points and longer response:
First point - without iTunes and Apple laying the groundwork for getting the labels on board with the digital world of music we're very likely not having this discussion because services like Tidal and Spotify don't exist. I get that those companies did the legwork in getting the streaming idea out there and functional, but without the groundwork laid by iTunes 15 years ago that's a much more monumental if not impossible task. One common argument is that Apple didn't invent the idea of a digital music service, although this is true they did do three things that I see as key the the long term viability of that platform. First, they made a product and service that was actually usable and good and that people were willing to pay for. Second, they worked out deals with the studios and created the first real broad market mass scale digital music store (there were others before them but none even remotely on the same scale as iTunes). Finally, they proved that the whole thing could work, they proved that people were willing to pay for a good platform and for digital music.
Second point - there appears to be a strong sentiment among some people that Apple has never truly had an 'original' idea of their own, that they just take other people's ideas and make them more usable and market them better then turning those into an popular industry. I definitely disagree, but let's say for the moment I grant you that argument...one thing you cannot argue with is their success in building an industry because there are hard numbers to show the impact of things like iTunes and smartphone sales.
So if you're Tidal isn't that what you want? If you're a Tidal customer don't you want the extra features that Apple could bring to the table? Don't you want the extra content and the human curated playlists and the financial backing of a company who can help with all the financial and lawsuit BS Tidal going through right now and ensure your long term viability? Likewise, if you're an Apple Music person don't you want the exclusive content from Tidal and their lossless streaming? I do.
Is there a possibility that Apple will just buy the name and the exclusive content and then dump the rest of it? Sure, that's technically a possibility but it's a highly unlikely one. They're much more likely to do what they've done with many other acquisitions, take all the great things about that service and fold it into their own. They'll make some mistakes along the way, the first iteration of Apple Music has had it's issues to be sure. The likely outcome here is that we'll get the benefits of Tidal and Apple Music rolled into a single service.
Sony XA-5400ES SACD
Pass XP-22 pre, X600.5 amps
Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers, SPOD spikes
Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables
Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
Three 20 amp circuits.
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.