There are a number of ways that music streaming services can set themselves apart from one another. This can be done through price, the size of their catalogue, and also exclusives. However Tidal seems to be going one step further and that is through features where they will now allow users to edit song length and tempo.
Dubbed “Track Edit”, this feature is basically what its name suggests. Users who feel that certain songs could do without a lengthy intro or could be faster can now edit these songs and save the edited versions to a playlist.
While playing a song in the Tidal app, you can change the length and speed with the new Track Edit feature from the options menu. To make any tempo adjustments, you will need to select a segment of a song before you can do so. The tool also allows you to make changes to how the song fades in/out.
This is novel, but I doubt many artists outside of the dancier genres would approve of their songs being manipulated in these ways (especially the ability to dramatically speed up the tempo). Prince – who until recently was touted as a Tidal exclusive artist – would certainly be unhappy with the prospect. I wonder if catalog can be excluded when an artist wishes his or her songs to remain untouched by Tidal’s users.