Wybierając ofertę nie zaszkodzi rozumieć: od kogo jest i po co.
Wikipedia w języku angielskim podaje na wstępie hasła Tidal :
Tidal (stylized as TIDAL) is a Norwegian subscription-based music, podcast and video streaming service that offers audio and music videos. Tidal was launched in 2014 by Norwegian public company Aspiro and is now owned by Project Panther Bidco.
With distribution agreements with all three major record labels and many independent labels, Tidal claims to provide access to more than 70 million tracks and 250,000 music videos. It offers two levels of service: Tidal Premium (AAC at 320 kbit/s) and Tidal HiFi (CD quality – FLAC-based 16-Bit/44.1 kHz – and MQA – typically lossy 24-bit/96 kHz). Tidal claims to pay the highest percentage of royalties to music artists and songwriters within the music streaming market.
Ostataniego zdania w cytatcie powyżej brakuje w polskojęzycznej wersji Wikipedii, a jest ono bardzo istotne, by zrozumieć ofertę Tidal. W 3 akapicie hasła w j.ang. jest zaakcentowane:
While some observers praised the high fidelity audio quality, and higher subscription fees that would result in higher royalties to the artists and songwriters, others felt the high subscription fees and exclusive Tidal content from the artists involved could lead to more music piracy.
Trudno powiedzieć czy założony w 1998 roku szwedzki Aspiro miał jakieś plany na Tidal, nim w 2012 wykupił ich norweski koncern medialny, którego działaność rozpocząła się w 1839 roku jako drukarnia. Norweski koncern jest od lat notowany na giełdzie w Oslo, gdzie ma bardzo silną pozycję. Mimo na potrzeby Tidal zachowano nazwę szwedzkiej firmy, która notowana była na giełdzie w Sztokholmie, ale postanowiono, że będzie miała statut firmy prywatnej. Powodem tego mogły być nawet plany wzmocnienia norweskiej giełdy, ale nie można wykluczyć, że jakieś odpowiedzi na te zawiłe operacje należy szukać w ofercie usługi, która powstała w 2010 roku, a Wiki podaje o niej m.in:
WiMP was a music streaming service available on mobiles, tablets, network players and computers. Music in WiMP was streamed using the AAC+ file format in a bitrate of 96 kbit/s or the AAC file format in a bitrate of 320 kbit/s if the high quality streaming option is selected. WiMP also offered a HiFi-product with FLAC/ALAC.[2] WiMP has since been merged into Tidal.
Wimp was developed by Aspiro AS and the Norwegian music store chain Platekompaniet AS and was first launched in Norway February 2010.
Nie ma natomiast wątpliwości czym zachęcono później amerykańskich inwestorów
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Panther_Bidco
W tym temacie Wikipedia podaje w j. szw. (cytat przetłumaczony na j. ang. z Google)
At an international press conference March 26, 2015, the deal was presented with the loanning of Tidal together with a number of participating world artists. This is to create an artistically owned competitor for the market-leading Swedish Spotify, especially to offer better financial compensation to artists and music creators. These artists include Rihanna, Beyoncé, Madonna, Calvin Harris, Nicki Minaj, Daft Punk and previous Kanye West. Instead of advertising-financed free listening, the new tidal offers only monthly subscriptions in two price levels with lower and higher sound quality.
W tym czasie pojawił się MQA,
Wiki podaje w temacie Master Quality Authenticated:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_Qu ... henticated
MQA was launched on 4 December 2014 at The Shard in London, although the concepts underpinning the development had previously been the subject of a presentation to the Audio Engineering Society British Section (10 June 2014) and a paper (published 8 October 2014) presented at the Audio Engineering Society 137th Convention in Los Angeles, CA in October 2014.
MQA was demonstrated to visitors to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2015. Several download/streaming services, playback system manufacturers and record labels have subsequently announced support for the technology, including Pioneer Corporation, Onkyo, Meridian Audio, 7digital, Norwegian label Lindberg Lyd (2L), Mytek and others, with Warner Music Group announcing the signing of a "long-term licensing deal" with MQA at the Munich High End show in May 2016.
In May 2016, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), in cooperation with the Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing, the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), and DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group, announced that services providing music encoded in MQA are eligible to carry the industry's official logo mark for "Hi-Res MUSIC".
In March 2018, MQA launched "Live", a virtual concert-going service designed to preserve the original sound quality of live performances. While playback will be available on any device, only devices compatible with MQA's proprietary codec may access the stream's "full quality."
Wygląda na to, że Consumer Electronics Show w Las Vega było decydującym, by Tidal stał się platformą MQA. Najbardziej prawdopodobne jest, że potrzebne było sprawdzenie w praktyce potencjału MQA dla dystrybucji, która może zastąpić sprzedaż płyt. Zachęcono artystów lepszymi warunkami rozliczania, by na ukierunkować prezentowanie projektu. Pozyskano także współpracę producentów sprzętu RTV i by ich nie odstraszyć w rozdaniach biznesowych nie widać Meridium Audio, chociaż tam powstał MQA, a Wiki podaje na ich temat:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridian_Audio
Based in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, Meridian Audio was founded by John Robert (Bob) Stuart and Allen Boothroyd in 1977. Since the company's inception, all Meridian products have been built in the UK. The company claims it was the among the first to introduce active loudspeakers designed for the domestic market [1] and was the first British company to manufacture a CD player in 1983. The Meridian MCD, launched in 1985, was the first audiophile CD player. Meridian also created the first digital surround-sound processor, the 565 in 1994 as well as the first DSP-based digital active loudspeakers.
Teraz mniej słychać o MQA i dalsze losy Tidal są także mniej jasne, bo jak w j. ang. podane jest w Wikipedii:
In January 2017, Sprint Corporation bought 33% of Tidal for a reported $200 million. In March 2021, Square agreed to buy Tidal for $297 million.[6] As part of the deal, Square will own a majority of Tidal, but also appoint Jay-Z to the board of directors at Square.
O nowym właścicielu można przeczytać:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square,_Inc.
Square, Inc. is an American financial services and digital payments company based in San Francisco, California. The company was founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey and launched its first platform in 2010. It has been traded as a public company on the New York Stock Exchange since November 2015 with the ticker symbol SQ.
Paweł Winiarski już 15 września 2016 zwrócił uwagę:
Maciej Sikorski (2016-07-01) i rozpoczyna od słów:
Konrad Kozłowski 2020-07-10 napisał:
Na facebook w grupie hifiaudiostreaming Robert Jazgarski napisał 
Jest Flac o którym Wiki podaj m.in. 
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