When Tidal was launched in late March it was called the next big thing in music streaming. But it seems the music site has flopped and what’s worse- it’s made free services like spotify and pandora more popular.
Tidal put all of its chips into one basket: whinging that other streaming music services pay nothing to the musicians, but Tidal will make sure that more money goes to the artists. Unfortunately, this royally backfired for Tidal. Because there is nothing worse then a bunch of rich musicians complaining that they don’t get enough money!
The tidal wave of backlash is evident in the numbers reported by BGR: Tidal only briefly cracked the US iPhone top 20 download chart, and now it’s flunked out of the Top 700 chart.
Not only has it failed to appeal to US audience, Tidal’s campaign against free streaming sites has caused free music streaming apps to surge back into the iPhone top 20 revenue chart: Pandora and Spotify occupy No. 3 and No. 4 respectively.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISRoAgmAVjI
Tidal, originally owned by a Swedish company Aspiro, was purchased by Jay-Z in January for an estimated $US 56 million (AUD $73 million). The draw card was that Tidal has “window” rights to new releases of musicians latest tunes including Beyonce, Madonna, Daft Punk, Deadmau5, Arcade Fire and Calvin Harris. This would mean Tidal users would have first access to music before any other streaming site. The website also offers exclusive music from artists, including studio sessions and b-sides.
“Throughout history, every movement began with a few individuals banding together with a shared vision – a vision to change the status quo,” Jay-Z said during the press announcement. Which is true, but the movement is usually started by people who don’t own yachts and have millions of dollars.
