I have talked a lot about Spotify over the years; I rely on this music streaming service for a lot of my musical consumption. But I never paid attention when Joe Rogan was hired for a reported 200 million dollars and never listened to him on Spotify. For those who don't know, the Joe Rogan Experience is the top podcast on the planet, with millions of daily listeners. A friend of mine who has another podcast on Spotify had once gone on Rogan's show. They discussed a wide range of issues, including gun control, and he was still getting nasty emails about his opinions from Rogan listeners months after his appearance.

I started hearing about a controversy after Rogan had some quack doctor who questioned whether SARS-Cov-2 was real and who pushed therapies that most medical professionals called ineffective or dangerous. Rogan seemed to be on the bandwagon with this guy, which only made him look worse to most folks who take the virus seriously. People started to ask why Spotify allowed misinformation about SARS-Cov-2 on their service. Then one morning, the headlines scream that Neil Young has pulled his music off Spotify, and others soon followed him--Joni Mitchell, Crosby Stills, Nash, Nils Lofgren, to name a few. They all referred to Rogan's apparent disregard for science for making the moves, and Rogan didn't help himself when he stated he liked Joni Mitchell, especially her tune Chuck E's in Love, which Rickie Lee Jones recorded.

The hashtags began to appear--#ditchspotify, #spotifysucks--you name it, there was a hashtag. This lasted a week before Spotify CEO Daniel Ek made a statement showing some support for Young and the others. Rogan gave what sounded like heartfelt apologies, and then Spotify removed over 100 Rogan shows that had "questionable" content. I then started reading pieces on Spotify, In the New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/imagine-a-world-without-spotify), and on an obscure Substack that reminded me that Spotify's business model treats music as an essentially worthless commodity that can be monetized if you don't mind screwing the artists out of money they deserve. (https://dadadrummer.substack.com/p/spotify-is-misinformation). I started thinking maybe I was done with Spotify.

I have been a Spotify power user for many years, maxing out over 60,000 listening minutes which Spotify reports annually. I have created dozens of playlists; I like the social media side of it--I like seeing what my Spotify friends are playing. I was not ready to dump something I was so comfortable with. But as the controversy came to a crescendo, I figured I should at least look at the alternatives. I had tried Apple Music twice in the past, and while the selection of music was solid, I was never keen on the interface, causing me to drop the service after both tries. I had a similar experience with Amazon Music. I have a subscription to NugsNet, which I like, but that is all live music, not the same as the other services.

I had heard of high-fidelity services in the past. They have higher bitrates that give you incredible sound. Tidal is one of those services, so I pulled up their website and checked it out. Looked a lot like Spotify with a similar interface and music selection. They have a few levels of bitrate--their basic is like the others at a measly 160KBPS, but their midrange goes up to 1411 KBPS--which provides lossless cd quality (that's really good). Their HiFi Plus gives you up to 9600kbps, which provides Master Quality audio and other proprietary formats like Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio (you pay more for this). I put on Steely Dan's Aja, a great music set to test the sound quality. The great Chuck Rainey's bass riff kicked in, and then Donald Fagen sang:

"In the corner of my eye
I saw you in Rudy's
You were very high
You were high
It was a cryin' disgrace
They saw your face"

It sounded excellent. I could hear every tap on the cymbals, every snap on the snare drum, discriminate between the brass instruments, Tom Scott's sax solo was perfect, and Fagen's voice was so crisp.

This was selling me quickly on Tidal. But I was in Unison, where the Internet can be sketchy. On the next tune, Aja, with probably the greatest rock drum solo in history played by Steve Gadd, augmented by the great saxophonist Wayne Shorter, the music stopped...it was buffering. Oh, oh, maybe Tidal was only good if you have a solid Internet connection? The music came back on, and I listened to Gadd's second incredible solo that closes the tune. Damn, it sounded good.

So I stepped into Tidal. Their family plan is about $15 a month for five connections, not bad. I have been playing it for two weeks now, and 95% of the time, it works great. I figure I'll make a final decision on whether to dump Spotify. I will make that decision based on how the music sounds, how it integrates into my home music systems, and how the platform treats its artists. I don't care about the Joe Rogan's crap. I'll let you know how it goes.

If you are wondering if your Spotify is still right for you, there is a chart on Wikipedia that provides you with a list of streaming services and the features that they offer. It's a good place to start. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_music_streaming_services/22.

Steve Chase is playing his HiFi music loud in Unison.