Tidal vs Pandora: All-around Comparison

As times continue to evolve, streaming music has become one of the best ways for people to listen to music. Among all the most popular streaming platforms, the comparison between Tidal and Pandora has caused a huge reaction. Both platforms offer huge libraries of songs, user-friendly interfaces, and affordable subscription plans.

However, these two streaming platforms differ from each other in various aspects. So, which one is better for you? To let you know more, we've used and reviewed both platforms in detail. We compared all the important aspects of the two, including sound quality, library, ease of use, cost, and more. Read on to see a detailed comparison of Pandora vs Tidal.

• Part 1. Music Library
• Part 2. Sound Quality
• Part 3. Music Discovery
• Part 4. Ease of Use
• Part 5. Pricing
• Part 6. Supported Platforms
• Part 7. Availability
• Part 8. Which One Should You Choose

Part 1. Tidal vs Pandora: Music Library

Tidal Music Library

Tidal was made for Jay Z fans and owned by Jay Z. It may have gotten off to a slow start, but things have changed completely now. Now, Tidal's music library has grown prominently by leaps and bounds. If you look at it, it now has over 80 million songs covering the world's best R&B, Hip Hop, and some exclusive content.

Tidal's high-fidelity master tracks are now in the millions as well. And user can enoy 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos Music on Tidal. In addition, Tidal claims it is "artist-owned," paying the highest percentage of royalties to songwriters.

Pandora Music Library

Now, come to Pandora's music library, which has more than 50 million songs. When a user visits Pandora and creates a radio station based on his favorite artist, Pandora searches for similar artists and songs.

On Pandora, radio stations are really just playlists. Users can create their own radio stations/playlists based on their favorite music and use their friends' shared playlists. However, it does not support adding individual songs or albums manually.

Winner: Tidal

Part 2. Pandora vs Tidal: Audio Quality

Talking about Tidal vs Pandora sound quality, you will find the quality can vary with your subscription base. And Tidal outperforms Pandora in terms of sound quality. Why?

For free service, Pandora offers an audio quality of 64kbps but Tidal offers a stream of tracks at 160kbps. And when you look at the premium packages, you will also witness some differences.

Tidal provides you with 1411kbps CD-quality FLAC audio quality with a HiFi subscription. Besides, it also offers a HiFi Plus subscription. It enables you to enjoy Tidal MQA, which brings the audio quality up to 9216kbps. Coming to Pandora, it offers 192Kbps audio quality for Pandora One users.

Data related to actual bitrates on this platform is a little sketchy. Some users even reported poor audio quality on smartphones. So, if you are a person who loves to listen to music with better sound quality, you can go for Tidal. This can be a major differentiating factor between Pandora and tidal.

Winner: Tidal

Part 3. Tidal vs Pandora: Music Discovery Feature

Even though both Tidal vs Pandora are quite good when it comes to the discovery of music, Pandora is quite better in terms of AI and music discovery factor.

Here is why. Pandora has an advanced algorithm that can effectively suggest to the users newly added songs based on their previous songs and taste. So, with this, you can now easily locate all your favorite songs, and you will listen to the songs that are pleasing to the ears.

What's more? You are free to select artists based on your preference. The platform can curate the songs for you. But in Tidal, its algorithm is quite slow and only offers you a few suggestions. You may not find it very satisfactory. So, this is where some may prefer to choose Pandora over Tidal.

Winner: Pandora

Part 4. Pandora vs Tidal: Ease of Use

Even though Pandora and Tidal are highly used streaming platforms, when it comes to Tidal vs Pandora ease of use, they are completely different.

Talking Pandora, it comes with easy to navigate features and a lyrics feature. With this, you can read the lyrics while playing the tracks. Additionally, the interface and appearance are also very clean.

Tidal's user interface may look a little messy. However, some people prefer to use it. So, it's completely up to you when it comes to which one to use.

Winner: Draw

Part 5. Tidal vs Pandora: Pricing

When it comes to Tidal premium vs Pandora, Tidal offers more paid plans.

Pandora offers free ad-based radio. To enjoy ad-free radio, you have to pay $5 per month. On-demand ad-free music is available for $10 per month. It also offers an $8 per month subscription for military personnel, a $15 per month subscription for families, and a $5 subscription for students.

Now, coming to Tidal, for 320kbps audio quality, you will have to pay $10 per month. For 1411kbps audio quality, the subscription is $20 per month. Their family subscription packages start at $15 or $30. For student subscriptions, you will have to pay $10. It also offers subscription packages for first responders and veterans at a cost of $12.

So, if you go into detail, Tidal has the best plan. After all, getting 1411kbps audio quality for $20 isn't a bad thing.

Winner: Tidal

Part 6. Pandora vs Tidal: Supported Platforms

Both Tidal and Pandora are available for Android, iOS, web, and Windows phones. On the other hand, Pandora is also available on other platforms such as Apple TV, Sonus, Roku, PlayStation, Direct TV, TiVo, Pebble Watch, and Amazon Echo.

Winner: Pandora

Tip: How to Improve Tidal Compatibility

Here we would like to introduce a way for you to improve the compatibility of Tidal. That is you can use the DRmare Tidal Music Converter to help you convert Tidal music to MP3. MP3 is the most popular audio format and it's compatible with most devices. So, you can use it to download and convert Tidal songs to MP3 and then import them to any device for playback.

Not only that, it also allows you to get Tidal premium free. The best part is that you can download music from Tidal for offline listening without a paid subscription. After then, you can listen to Tidal music on any other devices you like on the go offline.

Part 7. Tidal vs Pandora: Availability

Tidal covers around 53 countries across the world, but Pandora limits the users to only some selected countries.

This can be a major drawback factor of Pandora. Well, you can use it using a proxy service to hide your IP address and make yourself appear in the right country. However, this factor has not affected Pandora users from using this platform. After all, music is all that matters in the end.

Winner: Tidal

Part 8. Which One Should You Choose?

Well, both Tidal and Pandora are quite good and give you a good listening experience. If you don't know how to choose, we can give you some suggestions.

Tidal is better than Pandora in the aspects of audio quality and music collections. Tidal offers 1411kbps sound quality that you will not get with Pandora. So, if you care about sound quality, you can choose Tidal. And if you want to stream on more devices, you can choose Pandora.

Plus, DRmare Tidal Music Converter can also help you improve Tidal's compatibility. It allows you to download Tidal music without a subscription. And you can use it to convert Tidal to MP3 for playback on any device.