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 given
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.
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Olivia was previously TechRadar's Senior Editor - Home Entertainment, covering everything from headphones to TVs. Based in London, she's a popular music graduate who worked in the music industry before finding her calling in journalism. She's previously been interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live on the subject of multi-room audio, chaired panel discussions on diversity in music festival lineups, and her bylines include T3, Stereoboard, What to Watch, Top Ten Reviews, Creative Bloq, and Croco Magazine. Olivia now has a career in PR.
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