Today we have some news for our audiophile audience — more specifically, Tidal users with Samsung TVs.

Tidal is a popular music streaming service known for its dedication to high fidelity. Tidal is one of the only streaming services that offers full lossless audio, HiRes FLAC files, and Dolby Atmos compatibility for all of the songs available in their library. Users can stream their favorite songs at up to 24-bit / 192 kHz and not miss a single detail. For this reason, Tidal is frequently used among audiophiles and those listening at home with a hi-fi surround sound system. Among the rest of the population, Tidal doesn’t have the same popularity as its more mainstream counterparts like Spotify and Apple Music, as the appreciation for high fidelity is often lost among those who are listening on standard speakers or simply can’t hear the difference (we aren’t judging you, hi-fi isn’t for everyone). This might be contributing to Tidal’s recent cuts in accessibility of their service, but don’t worry, these changes are relatively minor, and their mobile app is still just as accessible as any other streaming app.

Although once widely available on various smart TV brands, Tidal has been removed from a number of TV lines over the last few years. Amazon Fire TVs and Roku TVs no longer feature Tidal applications. Now, Tidal is announcing the discontinuation of the Samsung TV Tidal app; this affects all TVs running Tizen OS beginning July 8th, 2024. Users should have received an email disclosing these upcoming changes.

For those who use the Tidal app on their Samsung TV as their main way of accessing the service, you may be wondering how to adjust. In these cases, users should transition to streaming from a mobile device directly to their soundbar, media player, or any device capable of receiving wireless audio (be wary of preserving audio quality when streaming). Basically, this means cutting your TV out of the route altogether when streaming music on Tidal. Alternatively, users with Apple devices such as iPhones, iPads, and Macs can cast directly to their Samsung TV using AirPlay 2. Tidal apps will still be available on Apple TV and Google TV. 

This announcement comes in tandem with another recent disclosure that the streaming service will be dropping support for MQA tracks, in favour of the FLAC file format, for all hi-res audio, beginning July 24th. Beyond that, the company also announced a dramatic alteration to the pricing plan back in August of this year. Previously, their lossless audio content was only available via a $20/month subscription, but the individual subscription plan now costs just $11 each month. This makes Tidal more affordable than Spotify, who is going in the opposite direction with their pricing and still doesn’t offer hi-fi streaming in any of their plans. (We’re not making any statements here, just stating the facts.)