Adding Tidal Connect

Doing the same @JoostEijkenboom , checking daily for updates. Will this require a completely new update?

since this is based on buster ( though jessie port there ) I will suspect it will require a full update and also update to plugins.

They told us they will need at least 2 weeks (one week ago). Considering also that easter vacations are in the middle, I think we have at least 2 more weeks to wait :wink:

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Great news! Cant wait!

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Will it require Volumio Premium to use Tidal Connect?

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Iā€™ve asked this 4 months ago, other members have asked alsoā€¦
Great to see the development that has been done for Tidal Connect implementation.
Think it is time for us to get some answer from Volumio whether this will be a free option (which it should be, like Spotify), or it will be available only to Premium members.
Cheers
Vlada

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Honestly I disagree. Volumio needs to make some money to develop and sustain new features. A Rpi with decent HAT running volumio with Tidal connect gives you an extremely cheap solution compared to other streaming stuff. I donā€™t see why it would need to be free. The (fast) development the Volumio team did past months should be rewarded. I am grateful they didnā€™t drag their feet implementing it, even though they just completely overhauled their Tidal implementation.

Of course free would be nice, but not everything can be free. Development costs (serious) money. Additionally, it wouldnā€™t surprise me if certification by Tidal would actually cost money.

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I respect your view and understand, however totally disagree as such a move would be against ā€œopen sourceā€ spirit and purpose.

Also please consider end user perspective; why would anyone would already pay a subscription fee to Tidal or others and in addition to Volumio for such a utility?

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Hmm you do realise the implementation of Spotify being used currently isnā€™t an offical Spotify endorsed client right?

If you want an official Spotify connect solution, similar to Tidal, you need to follow a procedure with Spotify to sign up as a hardware partner, sign a NDA and get access to their SDK.

However, Spotify pretty much considerers us small fish, and further more the SDK would be valid only an official device that has been approved (Ć  la the Primo) and not ANY My/Volumio device. This is the tricky part even if you get official approval from Spotifyā€¦

https://developer.spotify.com/use-cases/hardware/home-audio/#to-release-a-spotify-connect-enabled-device-to-market-you-must

The only reason the current implementation is free is because of efforts from a lot of people to reverse engineer (and implement) Spotifyā€™s closed source implementation. So the current Spotify implementation on Volumio isnā€™t an ā€œofficialā€ Spotify endorsed client and comes with a disclaimer that probably no one readsā€¦

But, then again, the first Spotify connect implementation arose from library dump from someone with Spotifyā€™s ā€œofficialā€ hardwareā€¦ So who know, maybe in sufficient time one will see a libretidal? :wink:

PS: The ā€œFreeā€ in FOSS is to do with free as in freedom/liberty and not free as in $Ā£ā‚¬ā€¦

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Yes, I do very well understand that development costs time and money.

On the other hand, Spotify Connect Volumio implementation also required some development, right? Yet, the plug-in is free of charge (admittedly, it seems that Spotify implementation was simpler).

But, weā€™re members of an open-source community, and in that context, in my opinion, Tidal Connect Volumio implementation should be free of charge.

Of course, itā€™s on Volumio developers to decide upon the terms and everyone of us can then decide for ourselves if weā€™ll join or not under the conditions which will be published.

Cheers
Vlada

Volumio primio is already not a free solution. The current tidal implementation is not free either. Of course it is totally up to the developers of Volumio, but I wouldnā€™t be surprised if this is part of the paid part of Volumio.

Open source != free, and free and paid services can coexist pretty well. You are just paying for premium additional services.

I know paying for software when you are already paying for a streaming service hurts. I found it very disturbing as well when I first learned about it. But honestly, its a few bucks a month, and its a great piece of software with pretty good support and fast development. If volumio primo was not a thing, I donā€™t think we would be having Tidal connect this close to release in the first place, nor within a day support replies.

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You need to make some separations here:

Spotify plugin was developed by the community, as the API is free accessible to developers.
Both Qobuz and Tidal closed their API, as people used this in an non legal manner. Therefore there is no plugin anymore in Kodi.
Both Qobuz and Tidal donā€™t provide an key to a 3rd party without an agreement and approval. This means that only A company can request this key to get access to their API. In this case to Volumio. Meaning that Volumio needs to invest in this development and prob. need to pay for it.
So it would make sense if they ask a fee for it.

Volumio only charge 29 Euro per year to get access to Tidal and Qobuz integration (or nothing if you donā€™t want the integration. Compare that to:

  • 10 euro p/m for Roon, even without the use of Qobuz and Tidal.
  • Audirvana, 99 euro per version or 69 euro to upgrade to the next release
  • Jriver 60 Euro per version (No and Never an integration with Qobuz, Tidal and Spotify)
  • Jplay 199 euro lifetime license
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Iā€™ve already said that I understand that Spotify integration was easier/simpler/cheaper to develop, but it still was a development. So, if we follow your logic strictly, why should that be free?
Pls. donā€™t misunderstand me, Iā€™m not in for a dispute of any kind: I acknowledge your opinion and respect your argumentation. I just happen to think differently, thatā€™s all.
Cheers
Vlada

If I am correct Spotify was not developed by Volumio, but by people/enthusiast on this forum/community.
In return Volumio added it as an approved plugin to their system, so we can easily download and install it.

Weā€™d all love it to be free, but since Iā€™m currently paying for Volumio Virtuoso to use Tidal, if Volumio made it free they would go backwards in revenue.

One thing for whoever decides the pricing at Volumio to consider is Spotifyā€™s upcoming CD-quality tier ā€œHiFiā€ later this year. This may be cheaper than Tidalā€™s plans, but even if it is equal many of us will jump ship for Spotify due to features, audience, and library size. So charging for Tidal Connect will make it even harder to justify staying with Tidal for those sitting on the fence.

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I think it is not a question if it should be free or not.
I just want to know if it will be free or not :slight_smile: Based on that info I can plan my subscriptions etc.
I am not questioning the capitalization model of Volumio as this is up to them.

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Please keep us all in the loop, not if but now when Tidal connect will be implemented on Volumio.
Great work, Keep it up!

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Itā€™s been 2 weeks - can I download it?

:smiley:

Lol, I know this is one of the most requested/anticipated changes to MyVolumio, but it canā€™t happen more quickly than the Tidal validation. Please be patient, hopefully it will be with us soon :smiley:

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Will the anticipated Tidal connect feature also work on volumio devices like the Pro Ject Stream Box S2 Ultra?