Spotify finally has a feature I'm truly envious of as a Tidal user

My partner subscribes to Spotify; I stream from Tidal. It’s hardly a household conflict akin to sibling rivalries or split support for Everton and Liverpool FC, but it speaks for the different manner in which we each consume music.

He likes Spotify’s interface, Release Radar playlist and the years of growing familiarity, and he only ever listens to its catalogue through standard AirPods, so isn’t particularly bothered that it doesn’t offer the higher audio quality of other streaming services.

I, however, do value the improved audio offered by Tidal, which makes sense considering, well, my hobby, my job and the calibre of headphones (and other audio kit) I typically stream music through.

Now that Tidal has somewhat caught up with the algorithmic curations Spotify has always led the charge in, I am satisfied by the discovery playlists the more niche service offers, too.

This isn’t intended to be a big Spotify vs Tidal showdown because there are many pros and cons to each that I won’t visit here, but just our personal reasons for using them.

For a couple of years, I had access to paid-for Spotify and Tidal subscriptions, and rarely did I find myself using the former. I stopped using it, for personal use at least, and have never looked back.

But for the past fortnight, I have felt a rare tinge of jealousy for my partner’s choice of streaming service because of its brand-new feature, which speaks to my enjoyment of live music.

Spotify has, for as long as I remember, listed live music events coming up in your locale – handy, certainly, although not much handier than simply typing your city into Songkick's gig finder.

But its new playlist – Concerts Near You – takes that gig integration further and is a tool I believe could be very useful for keen gig-goers like me.

Living up to its name, the playlist comprises 30 or so ‘top’ songs from artists you might like based on your listening habits that are playing near you. It’s updated every Wednesday.

In my partner’s case, this playlist is two hours of tunes from ‘indie rock’, ‘indie folk’ and ‘alternative rock’ artists playing in Melbourne soon, mostly within the next couple of months (although one is in September and another next January… for the serious plan-ahead-ers).

While simply listing gigs you might be interested in helps make you aware of bands you know that are touring your city, this new playlist will not only do the same but could also, if you like what you can hear – easily and without having to manually search for bands – lead you to buy gig tickets for an artist you didn’t previously know.

Already he has discovered and taken a liking to ‘80s pop-rockers Boom Crash Opera, playing 4km from our house later this month! (And we were made rather belatedly aware of an artist we do know – Sigur Rós, who are playing with the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra next month, although a ticket is AU$230 – ouch!)

The latest rumours about ‘Spotify HiFi’ (or ‘Spotify Music Pro’) – the very delayed next-level tier promising higher audio quality and, probably, some new extras – suggest that the service could be looking to introduce unique gig benefits that could give fans ‘access to presales or better seats’, among other things.

So if Spotify can become a service with enticing live music advantages (the service is supposedly still in ‘preliminary talks’ with ticket sellers and promoters), it may well gain a genuine upper hand over its increasingly competitive rivals.

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