Tidal has arrived on Amazon Echo speakers

Riding the Alexa wave

If you have an Amazon Echo speaker you can now stream music directly from Tidal, giving you more listening options than ever before.

The streaming service, which is owned by Jay-Z, is designed to provide listeners with hi-fidelity audio, promising a level of sound quality equivalent to CDs.

It's now the first streaming platform to take advantage of Amazon's Music Skills API, an initiative that makes it possible for services to add in support for Alexa themselves – in the past, companies like Spotify and Deezer had to rely on Amazon to enable Alexa support.

Read our Tidal review

No FLACs gave

To use Tidal on your Echo, Echo Dot, or Echo Plus you'll need to enable the dedicated Alexa skill – you will, of course, need a Tidal subscription as well.

If you were hoping to play hi-fidelity audio through your Amazon Echo, you'll be disappointed, as hardware limitations mean that the Echo can't support Tidal's high-quality FLAC 'Masters' tracks.

Still, you'll be able to stream the platform's curated playlists in lower-resolution AAC files, which is what you'll be used to if you're a Tidal Premium subscriber – only Tidal Hi-Fi subscribers have access to those super hi-fi FLAC files.



SOURCE TechRadar: