- Delivery
- Within 24 hours of approval; most releases are live within a few days
- Codes
- ISRC and UPC included free
- Your share
- 100% of TIDAL royalties on the Artist and Label plans
- Masters
- WAV, FLAC or AIFF · 16 or 24-bit · 44.1–192 kHz stereo
How music gets onto TIDAL
TIDAL takes its catalogue from labels and distributors. We send TIDAL the audio, artwork and metadata for your release, and TIDAL pays what it earns back through us.
TIDAL is a paid service, majority-owned by Block, and available in around 60 countries — mainly in the Americas and Europe. Its listeners choose it for sound quality, which is a good reason to send it your best master.
Lossless and hi-res: what to send
TIDAL streams at three quality levels, which listeners choose in their settings:
| Level | Format | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Low | AAC (compressed) | Up to 320 kbps |
| High | FLAC (lossless) | 16-bit/44.1 kHz — CD quality |
| Max | HiRes FLAC (lossless) | Up to 24-bit/192 kHz |
Max plays the best version of a track that TIDAL has. If there is no hi-res file, it falls back to the CD-quality one, so a track can only play in hi-res if a hi-res master existed in the first place.
We accept WAV, FLAC or AIFF at 16 or 24-bit and 44.1 to 192 kHz, in stereo. Practical advice:
- Upload the master at the resolution it was mastered at. If your engineer delivered 24-bit/96 kHz, send that, not a 16-bit copy.
- Do not upsample a 16-bit/44.1 kHz master to make it look hi-res. It adds file size, not detail.
- Leave headroom. Every file is checked on upload for clipping, silence and format, so a clipped master is caught before delivery.
TIDAL's AI policy
Since 15 July 2026 TIDAL has applied three rules to AI music:
- Tracks that are fully AI-generated are labelled as such
- TIDAL pays no royalties on fully AI-generated tracks
- AI tracks that impersonate real artists are removed
For artists who make their own music, nothing changes. If you use AI tools for parts of a track, be honest about it; and never release a voice or a style generated to pass as another artist.
TIDAL Artist Home
TIDAL's tool for artists is TIDAL Artist Home. To claim your profile, log in at tidal.com, find your artist page, choose to claim it and pick a way to verify. TIDAL verifies faster through a few distributors it has named; other claims are reviewed by hand, which TIDAL says can take up to eight weeks. Claim as soon as your first release is live.
- Trends — the age of your listeners, your top countries and top tracks, refreshed daily
- Your profile — bio and images; if you remove them, TIDAL may fill the gap with information from your label or distributor
- Your team — Owner, Admin, Editor and Viewer roles; the person who claims the profile becomes the Owner
You can claim one profile per TIDAL account. If you have duplicate profiles, or releases by another artist on your page, report them from the TIDAL web player or desktop app — the mobile app does not have the option.
Releasing on TIDAL, step by step
- Apply and set up your artistAccounts are opened by application — tell us about your music and we usually have you ready within one working day.
- Add the release detailsTitle, artists, genre, release date and territories. Credit featured artists as artists rather than in the title, and credit every performer properly — the same details serve Apple Music.
- Upload your best masterLossless, at its real resolution, with square artwork of at least 2400 × 2400 px (3000 × 3000 is ideal). Both are checked on upload.
- Pick TIDAL and the other storesEvery plan includes every store at no extra charge. We deliver approved releases within 24 hours; how fast TIDAL publishes is up to TIDAL, and most stores take a few days.
- Claim Artist HomeOnce the release is live, claim your profile, and allow for TIDAL's manual review.
Set your release date two to three weeks ahead so TIDAL goes live on the same day as every other store.
How TIDAL pays you
TIDAL is paid for by subscribers only, and it pays more per stream than the average streaming service. We do not quote a figure: it changes with the country, the listener's plan and the month. Its audience is smaller than the biggest services', so it works best alongside them, not instead of them.
| Plan | Price | Your share of TIDAL royalties |
|---|---|---|
| Release | $8.99 per release | 90% |
| Artist | $29.99 a year, unlimited releases | 100% |
| Label | $149 a year, up to 10 artists | 100% |
| Label Partner | No fee | 85% |
Stores report in arrears — most about two months after the month the streams happened. TIDAL's earnings land in your TempoDigital wallet in US dollars, and above $70 you can withdraw by Payoneer, PayPal, Wise or bank transfer.
Mistakes to avoid on TIDAL
- Sending a lossy or converted file. An MP3 converted to WAV is still an MP3. Start from the real master.
- Upsampled "hi-res". A 44.1 kHz master raised to 192 kHz is not hi-res audio.
- Leaving the claim until later. Manual verification can take weeks; start once the first release is live.
- Fully AI-generated tracks. TIDAL labels them and pays nothing on them.