It’s been a busy week for our friends at Tidal; new partnership with EPIX and now a huge opportunity to expand its base into the mainstream consumer market with a new partnership with LG.
LG smart televisions now offer the hi-res streaming service with the inclusion of a new Tidal app, which can also stream selected music in Dolby Atmos or Sony’s 360 Reality Audio; the Sonos Arc, Sennheiser AMBEO, and a new series of wireless loudspeakers from Sony support this technology.
The app is available for any LG models from 2018 that run webOS 4.0 and higher. You can download the app from the LG Content Store.
Tidal also offers high-fidelity MQA (master quality audio), which will be a nice change for LG television owners who have been limited to Spotify’s lower-quality lossy offerings. The streaming service added millions of MQA tracks last November, explaining how usage of MQA on its platform was up 40 per cent from 2019.
In theory, the eARC return channel on LG’s 4K and 8K HDTVs should be able to send lossless digital audio streams from the television to your AVR where they will benefit from the DAC inside the component.
But unless the internal DAC on your AVR or an external DAC connected to the television supports MQA — we’re not sure how consumers are going to benefit from Tidal Masters.
We’re going to add our Tidal account to our LG OLED 4K HDTVs at home and see what actually transpires, but this is encouraging news for hi-res audio and the streaming platform if it actually works.
Tidal has been very active in the past 2 months since it was acquired by Jack Dorsey’s Square and it’s clear that the streaming platform is looking to expand the base of music listeners who get to experience MQA and TIDAL Masters.
“TIDAL Masters offer the best sound available,” explains Lior Tibon, Tidal’s COO.
“As consumers’ expectations of high-quality experiences increase, TIDAL’s audio innovation sets the bar for music listening. Not only can members hear music exactly as their favourite artists recorded it, but with recent platform enhancements, the experience is as seamless as ever.”
How to Install TIDAL on LG TVs
Getting Started
- From your TV’s home screen, go to LG Content Store.
- Search for TIDAL, then install and launch the TIDAL app.
Link with TIDAL
- Go to link.TIDAL.com on your computer, phone or smart device.
- Log in if you are an existing member, or sign up for TIDAL.
- Enter the code displayed on your LG TV to link it to your account and begin streaming.
What LG TVs are compatible with TIDAL?
All LG TV models 2018 & newer are compatible with TIDAL. Check LG TV prices at Amazon.
For more information: TIDAL Streaming App for LG HDTVs
