A serious rival to music streaming service Spotify has been launched in Ireland promising higher quality audio along with High Definition music videos and editorial content tailored specifically for the Irish market.

Tidal went live in Ireland on Thursday morning with a library is made up of more than 25 million songs, 75,000 music videos, and curated editorial articles.

Like the premium version of Spotify, it is free of ads but the monthly subscription fee of €19.99 is twice the price charged by the market leader.

The company has put the higher price down to the higher quality of the audio being streamed and because it pays more to the artists it carries on its platform.

Last year Taylor Swift announced she would not allow her music to be streamed on Spotify because she felt the financial arrangements it was putting in place for artists was too miserly. Her music is, however, available on Tidal.

The streaming service is already available in the US, Canada, the UK, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

It is available on iOS, Android, network players, and PC/Macs and promises to offer “high fidelity, lossless sound quality” which is describes as “a prerequisite to enjoying music the way it was intended by the artists”.

Tidal streams audio at more than four times the bit rate of competitive services which should make it comparable – in audio quality terms – to CDs.

"Ireland, as the rest of the world, is seeing a strong increase in music streaming subscriptions, as well as a high interest for high quality audio," said the company's CEO Andy Chen as the new streaming service was launched.

“It’s now time to finally enjoy a true high fidelity service with lossless sound quality, HD music videos and curated editorial. We have already seen substantial interest from music lovers in Ireland signing up to our waiting list so we are delighted to be able to launch the service there today.”