“When Tidal made its big media push at the end of March, the core message was clear: While other streaming music services like Spotify and Pandora pay a pittance to artists, Tidal offers musicians a better deal,” Tero Kuittinen writes for BGR. “Unfortunately, Tidal also opted to use super stars like Nicki Minaj and Beyonce as spokespersons for the app. The result was the ultimate mixed message: You should feel sorry about how little money Nicki makes.”
“Two weeks after Tidal briefly cracked the U.S. iPhone top 20 download chart, the app has crashed out of the top 700,” Kuittinen writes. “Apparently American consumers have limited empathy towards Beyonce and Nicki.”
MacDailyNews Take: Smirk.
Kuittinen writes, “Soon after the launch fiasco, Tidal’s CEO was kicked out in a ‘streamlining’ move.”
MacDailyNews Take: Or, in the vernacular: “Loading the shortbus.”
“The new CEO Peter Tonstad, a former consultant for the Norwegian Ministry of Environment, has his work cut out for him,” Kuittinen writes. “To make matters worse for Tidal, its main rivals are now surging. On April 20th, Pandora and Spotify occupied positions No. 3 and No. 4 on the U.S. iPhone revenue chart, respectively… It looks like Tidal’s attacks on Spotify and Pandora actually managed to increase public awareness of the services…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote of Tidal on March 31st:
Just another also-ran set to be obliterated by iTunes Music.
Related article:
Why Jay-Z’s ‘Tidal’ music subscription service doesn’t matter – March 31, 2015
Celebrities know what they are doing. Don’t be so cynical.
Neil Young – Pono Player? Killed it!
Ryan Seacrest’s keyboard? Nailed it!
Will.i.am’s Watch? Like a sir!
Jay Z’s music service? Booty-licious!
These celebs really have an eye on the future!
Unlike most of us. Kids today can’t tell the musical difference between a piano and a freight train.
🙁 OMG what a cynical statement. Another casualty of the industrialization/corporatization of education.
The homeschooled kids can.
Although I think it was awesome that someone was trying to take on spotify and pandora, and at the same time pay artists more money…..this was a sad attempt. Oh well
Take on Spotify & Pandora? They aren’t making any money! And Tidal wasn’t going to the artists any more money!
Check this article:
http://stratechery.com/2015/tidal-future-music/
“Suddenly, just because Jay Z is a famous musician he expects all of his fans to pony up ten bucks a month? Raw insanity. As is the position of the artists on the stage. I’d be much more impressed if they all ankled their deals, got rid of the major labels and went it alone. That’s why they’re not making much money on Spotify, not because of the free tier, but because their deals suck. But these same deals apply on Tidal! They’ve got to license the music from their bosses! It’s utterly laughable, like nursery school kids plotting against the teacher, or a kindergartner running away from home. Grow up!”
Artists can’t “go it alone”. They have no ability to market their products beyond a FaceBook page. The record labels, as evil as people want to make them out to be (and there is plenty of evil, drug pushing, and taking advantage of very unsophisticated artists), the fact is that without a major medium to market their music, artists would simply be unknown.
This is what I would love to see iTunes evolve into, a place where the independent artist could put out an album or a couple of songs, and have a true discovery for iTunes users to find new music, new artists. Right now it’s mostly publicizing the big labels’ latest releases, which is fine, but iTunes could be so much more.
Not true. Artists can go it alone more than ever in the history of the universe:
Read:
http://stratechery.com/2015/niches-problem-subscription-services/
Jay-Z was just jealous of Dr. Dre and this was his attempt to catch up.
You maybe get to be the master of only one or two area’s of where you’re talent takes you but rarely beyond in to a completely different arena. Most of these musical or MC tech wannabe’s don’t know what they’re getting into when it comes to technology. Then the Crash ‘N Burn Syndrome sets in once reality kicks them upside the head and they beat a hasty retreat. An expression I also like – “Shot down in flames!”
Most of these jerks just want the theoretically “sure-thing” ensuing wealth just to phone itself in and load up their money vaults with little further effort on their part. Despicable.
I meant to say “entitled jerks.”
And “your talent.”
Grammar Police alert! I usually don’t make that mistake and then of course there’s no MDN edit button. 🙁
I agree. Because you’ve mastered one or two things, there’s no reason to get a big head about it. Pride goes before a fall.
“Pride before fall” is one my my favorite classic human hubris expressions. Makes you laugh just thinking about it. 🙂
Some of the finest have been trying to figure a way to make streaming services pay.
Until some effective form of micro payments is introduced that directly links tracks streamed to consumer costs and then payments to artists, it isnt going to work. $120 a year for sporadic use is too much for many. I certainly couldnt justify the expense vs buying the odd CD and listening to my own ripped tracks
I can easier justify unlimited car washes than music streaming from the likes of J-Z.
The kids today are tone deaf and going deaf. They want cheap music to use with their overpriced fashion headphones. Tidal is high quality streaming. I’ll admit that you don’t need high resolution to listen to most of the junk on the radio performed by people with no talent, use auto tuners and get a hired back up band that’s never mentioned in the liner notes. If the industry keeps going the way it is, folks will be pleased as punch with sound that resembles a frigging Victrola. I hope that’ll be long after I leave this earth.
“Obliterated by iTunes Music”?
Hardly!
Tidal may be a flop, but iTunes Music is nothing to get excited about, either.
Apple has nothing to be happy about; they picked up a dud in Beats as well. I don’t think any of the music services have any clue about how best to serve the consumers. All they talk about is how much money they can make for musicians.
Good music and Good service will always make money for musicians through the ages. Nicki minaj or beyonce will make money as long as they keep shaking their a@#E..
People who listen to musicians like Justin bieber are not going to be paying money for any kind of subscription services. Target the right kind of audience and give a proper interface with a mix of free as well as paid subscription.
The only paid music subscription I have is iTunes Match. I like the convenience of having all my own music on all my devices and being able to stream it rather than synching all 60GB to every device. I don’t care to listen to radio or any other service that feeds me music. I purposely select every song I listen to, and wouldn’t have it any other way. I won’t be using any of these music services, not even Apple’s Beats/iTunes Radio or whatever, and I’m sure there are plenty of people that feel the same way.