Apple Music is today one of the world’s most successful streaming platforms, serving millions of customers with music from the biggest artists in virtually every sector.
Whether you’re into jazz, pop music, or dance and RnB, you’ll find it with an Apple Music subscription.
Although some reports pit Apple Music ahead of Spotify in key markets such as the United States, the company is facing stiff competition from other players like TIDAL, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music, and some are wondering whether now is the time to differentiate and ensure that Apple Music can weather the storms in the years ahead and keep its customers.
Like buying an iPhone or a new computer, music streaming subscriptions are easy to cancel or drop – and many are turning to Spotify because of its exclusive podcasts and, what some say as a superior user experience, with more control, flexibility, and options than Apple.
As well as updating the user interface to ensure customers remain happy, Apple has another option: to offer high-fidelity sound for those looking for a premium listening experience.
Although Apple has never disclosed the bitrate its songs are streaming at, we do know that songs that are stored in the iCloud Library are 256kbps AAC. TIDAL HiFi, on the other hand, offers a lossless listening experience at 1411kbps, whilst its new TIDAL Master tier offers an “authenticated and unbroken” experience at the highest possible resolution, streaming from 2304 to 9216kbps. That’s a significant jump over Apple Music and something the firm should consider.
Granted, streaming lossless music is more expensive – it requires more bandwidth – but Apple could introduce a new lossless tier to encourage TIDAL customers to make the jump.
There’s no word on when – or if – Apple will introduce such a tier, but we’ll update you if we hear more.
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