Please Help With Spotify Questions In The Air….

[MPawelek]

A few years ago when my new cars no longer accepted CD’s for music I installed all my favorite songs (850+) on memory sticks to use. I see that the ports in the Lucid will not use these so when the AGT arrives I will have to start over.

Please excuse me for these questions as I know nothing about streaming.
(1) I have a free Spotify account on my IPhone. Will I be Bluetoothing Spotify from my phone to the AGT or will the AGT connect directly to Spotify?
(2) If the AGT uses Spotify on its own will I need a different email to make a different account?
Thank you…

 

[hydbob]

A few years ago when my new cars no longer accepted CD’s for music I installed all my favorite songs (850+) on memory sticks to use. I see that the ports in the Lucid will not use these so when the AGT arrives I will have to start over.

Please excuse me for these questions as I know nothing about streaming.
(1) I have a free Spotify account on my IPhone. Will I be Bluetoothing Spotify from my phone to the AGT or will the AGT connect directly to Spotify?
(2) If the AGT uses Spotify on its own will I need a different email to make a different account?
Thank you…

I don't know if this is true or not, since Tesla does not allow you to use the free account, but the Lucid has the Spotify app built in. All you SHOULD HAVE to do is login with your current account info and it should work. No need to stream it through BT through your phone.

 

[DeaneG]

We use Spotify on our Volvo EV, I imagine the Air will be the same: you just set up the app on the car by giving it your Spotify login and password (specific to Spotify and different from any other email etc account you have). With the free account, you can ask for an artist by name and it'll play similar music. You can thumbs up or down specific songs and Spotify will keep track of what you like.

 

[Not Sam]

I have not played with Spotify in the Air but for Tidal I just logged in with my regular Tidal account and everything just worked. No need to use the phone.

 

[MPawelek]

What are the pros and cons between Spotify and Tidal?

 

[Not Sam]

What are the pros and cons between Spotify and Tidal?

I haven't done a lot of research on the differences, but I did see this which seemed pretty helpful.

For me the big difference was high-quality streaming (MQA) on my home devices that support Tidal. I'm not sure it matters much if you're just listening in the car over 4G/5G.

 

[hydbob]

What are the pros and cons between Spotify and Tidal?

RIGHT NOW the way Tidal works in the car, there is a negligible difference, unless the small library of Dolby Tracks is enough in Tidal, otherwise it's essentially the same quality for the vast majority of tracks.

IF Tidal or Lucid end up enabling Master tracks, then Tidal will be the clear winner, except I'm not sure if it's even possible to do it with the streaming limitations of the car.

 

[Paladin732]

We use Spotify on our Volvo EV, I imagine the Air will be the same: you just set up the app on the car by giving it your Spotify login and password (specific to Spotify and different from any other email etc account you have). With the free account, you can ask for an artist by name and it'll play similar music. You can thumbs up or down specific songs and Spotify will keep track of what you like.

You log in with a QR code

 

[Pete44]

RIGHT NOW the way Tidal works in the car, there is a negligible difference, unless the small library of Dolby Tracks is enough in Tidal, otherwise it's essentially the same quality for the vast majority of tracks.

IF Tidal or Lucid end up enabling Master tracks, then Tidal will be the clear winner, except I'm not sure if it's even possible to do it with the streaming limitations of the car.

Agree with @hydbob on his comparison. I'd think about getting the Spotify upgrade so that every song your request will be played rather than a similar one. Of course, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell have banned their music on spotify. Spotify also has a much more extensive set of playlists you can access. I've had Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music and Amazon Music for years and are happy with them, although they each have their plusses and minuses. Apple has Dolby Atmos so when you can access that through hard wire or maybe CarPlay, that will be my go to.

 

[SaratogaLefty]

Agree with @hydbob on his comparison. I'd think about getting the Spotify upgrade so that every song your request will be played rather than a similar one. Of course, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell have banned their music on spotify. Spotify also has a much more extensive set of playlists you can access. I've had Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music and Amazon Music for years and are happy with them, although they each have their plusses and minuses. Apple has Dolby Atmos so when you can access that through hard wire or maybe CarPlay, that will be my go to.

Yeah, maybe hard wire is the better solution for Apple Music? That also might mitigate the impact of the streaming limitations of the LTE connection on the Dolby Atmos capability. So hopefully the hardwire solution is simpler for Lucid to implement as opposed to CarPlay??

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Yeah, maybe hard wire is the better solution for Apple Music? That also might mitigate the impact of the streaming limitations of the LTE connection on the Dolby Atmos capability. So hopefully the hardwire solution is simpler for Lucid to implement as opposed to CarPlay??

Wait did I miss a thread? I can’t stream Tidal master quality tracks/Dolby Atmos in the car that charges several thousand dollars for Dolby Atmos sound system??? I pay $25/month for Tidal master/Dolby Atmos quality which my $140K car can’t play? Can I just sync my phone via Bluetooth and play them on my phone then, and it will connect to the car audio system that way? I’m gonna give my DA a hard time when she delivers me my car Thursday because she expressly told me I could play Dolby Atmos/Master quality Tidal tracks in the car using Tidal. If the car uses LTE does that mean it will NEVER be able to natively play what they claim it can play? I hope that’s not the case, I’ll be pissed because with no CarPlay using the 5G connection on your phone, then you can’t do what they say you can do.

 

[hydbob]

Wait did I miss a thread? I can’t stream Tidal master quality tracks/Dolby Atmos in the car that charges several thousand dollars for Dolby Atmos sound system??? I pay $25/month for Tidal master/Dolby Atmos quality which my $140K car can’t play? Can I just sync my phone via Bluetooth and play them on my phone then, and it will connect to the car audio system that way? I’m gonna give my DA a hard time when she delivers me my car Thursday because she expressly told me I could play Dolby Atmos/Master quality Tidal tracks in the car using Tidal. If the car uses LTE does that mean it will NEVER be able to natively play what they claim it can play? I hope that’s not the case, I’ll be pissed because with no CarPlay using the 5G connection on your phone, then you can’t do what they say you can do.

You can, just not through the pre-installed Tidal app

 

[Bunnylebowski]

You can, just not through the pre-installed Tidal app

Ok so I gotta play it via Bluetooth from my phone? I tried doing that in my Mercedes and it’s super glitchy.

 

[hydbob]

Ok so I gotta play it via Bluetooth from my phone? I tried doing that in my Mercedes and it’s super glitchy.

Yea, I really think it's because the bandwidth required is too high, but someone more knowledgeable should chime in before you get too upset

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Yeah I don’t use Tidal CarPlay app cuz it sucks, so I plug my phone in via USB in my car and use my phone Tidal app to play everything and it plays Master quality tracks perfectly over 5G every time, but if I try to do it via Bluetooth it craps out constantly.

 

[hydbob]

Yeah I don’t use Tidal CarPlay app cuz it sucks, so I plug my phone in via USB in my car and use my phone Tidal app to play everything and it plays Master quality tracks perfectly over 5G every time, but if I try to do it via Bluetooth it craps out constantly.

Maybe @SaratogaLefty can test it.

 

[SaratogaLefty]

I am using the Tidal "trial" membership. When it plays a Dolby Atmos recording it does display "Dolby Atmos" lit up in white and it sounds terrific. However, the connection is very "glitchy" as others have said and I live in the Bay Area where streaming capability is about as good as it can be (or so I'm told). Anyway, I will most likely not extend my Tidal subscription beyond the "trial" period. The number and diversity of Dolby Atmos recordings are subpar especially when compared with Apple Music. I often listen to my Apple Music Dolby Atmos recordings that I've downloaded onto my iPhone via Bluetooth, but as I understand it from the audiophile "experts" on this forum, the actual sound is only 2 Channel and not really Dolby Atmos when you play it via Bluetooth. It does sound really good so for me in the interim until we get CarPlay, this will have to be sufficient. As I wrote above, perhaps the best solution to avoid any possible streaming issues would be to be able to connect the phone directly via USB and then everything should be optimum. I really hope Lucid Management is reading this and a "fix" is in the works!!

 

[SaratogaLefty]

Yeah I don’t use Tidal CarPlay app cuz it sucks, so I plug my phone in via USB in my car and use my phone Tidal app to play everything and it plays Master quality tracks perfectly over 5G every time, but if I try to do it via Bluetooth it craps out constantly.

When you say you "plug my phone in via USB in my car and use my phone Tidal app to play everything and it plays Master quality tracks perfectly over 5G every time" I'm assuming you aren't referring to a Lucid, correct?

 

[Bunnylebowski]

When you say you "plug my phone in via USB in my car and use my phone Tidal app to play everything and it plays Master quality tracks perfectly over 5G every time" I'm assuming you aren't referring to a Lucid, correct?

Yeah it’s my Mercedes. I’m now seeing why people were asking for music via USB. Even without CarPlay you should still be able to plug the phone in via USB and have whatever audio you’re playing on your phone go to the car’s audio system, it’s just digital data and the formats have been standardized so for you not to be able to do this is a serious omission by Lucid’s team and I don’t understand why that’s not possible. I remember an Audi I had as a rental car a few years back before they had implemented CarPlay and that worked just fine playing music from my phone via USB. In fact I’m not aware of ANY modern car you can’t just plug your phone in via the USB connection and play whatever audio is playing on your phone. While I’ll put up with this failure for now because the Lucid is still going to be the best car I’ve ever driven or owned, it’s disappointing you can’t play any audio in a high quality format, especially when you’re paying for it by the added cost of the Dolby Atmos system and the high quality streaming subscription. And it IS a failure. Lucid prominently features their Dolby Atmos system plus integrated Tidal, Spotify etc in their marketing, which would attract the very people who would be quite irritated to find out the car can’t really do it because LTE is inadequate and you can’t hook up your phone to do it either. I’ll probably just drop my Tidal subscription to regular quality until Lucid gets their act together to enable this capability that likely very many of their owners would want. And it’s an even bigger screw up because Lucid’s mistake of not being able to implement higher audio quality from the applications in their UI will actually cost Tidal and Spotify money. If I were either of those streaming services I’d be on the phone to Rawlinson right now giving him a hard time for causing my company to lose money.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I should qualify this by admitting that 2 channel audio is just fine, almost everything is mixed in that as an original format. While Dolby Atmos is cool, it’s honestly not THAT significant of an improvement over 5.1 surround sound unless you’re in a top quality movie theater that has specifically mixed things for the height channels, and we’re not watching movies in our car. I’d just like it to be better quality audio than the standard streaming compressions format because the car can only do LTE and the Bluetooth cuts out.