Celebrity-owned streaming service Tidal have allegedly reported more than US$28 million losses in 2015. The service, owned by Jay Z and investors including Jack White and Daft Punk, has made a name for itself for championing high fidelity recordings, videos and exclusive content.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Tidal’s holding company, Aspiro AB, recorded a net loss of 239 million Swedish kronor, around $28 million. This is more than double their 2014 losses, totalling 88.9 million Swedish kronor. That said, Tidal’s revenue saw a 30% rise during the same time period.
Spotify’s losses were up around 184.5 million euros, 20 million more than 2014. However, its revenue rose by 80% in that time.
Tidal has made a name for itself by way of release strangleholds, bringing exclusive albums to the service which are unable to be found on others. Albums by Beyoncé, Rihanna and Kanye West are among the many which have received exclusive Tidal releases this year. While their user numbers have risen to more than four million, it’s still nothing compared to Apple’s 17 million and Spotify’s 30 million paying subscribers.
WSJ report that the company has been struck with copyright fees, royalties and so on from record labels, at a cost much higher than that earned from customers paying a monthly usage fee. Around 300 million Swedish kronor went to royalty fees, out of a total 402 million kronor in revenue. Compare this to Spotify whose revenue was around 1.95 billion Swedish kronor.
Aspiro are still hopeful, though. While Tidal doesn’t have funding for the forthcoming year, they are still confident that “the company will be able to secure new financing.”
Luckily it’s owned by celebrities who have more than a few million dollars lying around, but the future of Tidal still hangs in the balance. There’s only so many times you can force a customer to sign up simply by cornering the market entirely – particularly now that record labels have begun backing down from exclusive streaming releases. While exclusive may be enough to get people to sign up, they aren’t sticking around.
Image: Tidal
For the latest development in the ever-frustrating ‘war’ between music streaming platforms, Apple is reported to be in exploratory talks to acquire Tidal, a music streaming platform part owned and wholly championed by hip-hop legend Jay-Z.
With Apple having entered their own chip in to the streaming platform with Apple Music (officially unveiled almost exactly one year ago on June 30, 2015), the reported moves are likely an attempt by the huge technology conglomerate to further their place amongst the platforms and come out ahead of chief competitor Spotify.
Terms of the potential deal are, as of now, unclear, and likewise it is uncertain whether the rumoured talks will eventuate in a finalised deal. However, music fans will take the news as reason to rejoice, regardless, with growing frustrations at ‘platform exclusives’ shutting out fans from access to their favourite artist’s new releases. Especially given that Tidal’s ‘roster’ includes such enormous names as Jay-Z himself, Kanye West, Beyoncé, Pusha T, Big Sean and seemingly countless others, and has featured such exclusives as Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo, Beyoncé’s 2016 album Lemonade and the recently released debut mixtape from buzzing rapper Desiigner.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5ONTXHS2mM]
So tell us music fans, how psyched are you to save $10 a month and throw all of your support behind Apple Music? Or does Tidal deserve to hold a place all its own?
Image: Tidal
As its latest philanthropic effort, streaming service TIDAL has launched a new education initiative in collaboration with award winning rapper T.I. Known as TIDAL X MONEY TALK, the contest encourages participants to raise funds for educational purposes, and the most impactful proposal will see the money they raised matched by T.I and TIDAL.
The initiative is open to students and individuals tied to educational organisations, with a view to promote ideas and campaigns that encourage and benefit education. Now open to members of the public, the Crowd Rise destination is already filling up with fundraisers and various ideas of enable and support young people in education. From campaigns to educate participants about race issues, to youth arts festivals and further education on cancer and its effects, the entrants so far are varied.
ReviveMinds spreading awareness for gun safety! | Christian Kimbrough’s Fundraiser on CrowdRise https://t.co/edLh35TTxN #TIDALXMONEYTALK
— REALigion (@UnoKimbrough7) May 4, 2016
The contest is open to participants who are 18 years and over, and once they have set up their fundraiser it is up to them to drive their campaign using the #TIDALXMONEYTALK hashtag on social media. Tip “T.I” Harris will select his five favourite causes from those set up via the Crowd Raise, and, as promised, he and TIDAL will match the amount raised by up to $250,000. The winner will be selected on June 22 this year, and entry is open between now and June 15 for fundraisers to get campaigning.
Submit a proposal to raise money towards your education initiative! https://t.co/blv5sxxfEe #TIDALXMONEYTALK pic.twitter.com/RUMTIC9uYy
— T.I. (@Tip) May 4, 2016
Since the site launched in 2015, TIDAL has also been involved in a number of other initiatives. Including Usher’s Break The Chain movement and college initiative, and Lil Wayne’s COLLEGROVE social contest for universities. They also held the TIDAL X 1020 concert, with performances from Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Usher and others, to help benefit social justice organisations.
T.I is one of the many artist shareholders in the streaming service, after he partnered with TIDAL earlier this year. However he recently revealed that he may not make like Kanye, and make his next album release, The Dime Trap, exclusive to TIDAL.
You can check out the TIDAL X MONEY TALK and set up your own fundraiser here.
Image: 360nobs
Tidal, the much-maligned music streaming service, is in hot water once again. Just one-year since its inception, rapper and music mogul Jay Z has accused previous owners, Norwegian media company Schibsted ASA, of inflating the amount of subscribers it had when Jay Z and other investors purchased it.
Bought for the price of a cool $56 million, it seems like the mogul is looking to recoup some of his losses as Tidal is still less popular than Spotify and Apple Music.
“It became clear after taking control of Tidal and conducting our own audit that the total number of subscribers was actually well below the 540,000 reported to us by the prior owners,” Tidal told Bloomberg in a press release. “As a result, we have now served legal notice to parties involved in the sale.”
Anders Rikter, a spokesman for Schibsted, responded with, “We disagree with the accusations in the letter and any potential claims. We would like to point out that the company was listed on the stock exchange with everything that entails regarding transparent financial reporting.”
Schibsted claims that Jay Z’s holding company S. Carter Enterprises LLC had already inspected the company before deciding on its acquisition, which happened in January 2015.
These accusations come in the wake of a very few shaky first months for the celebrity venture. The company has had three different CEOs thus far, as well as accidentally leaking Rihanna’s new album ANTi, AND releasing some pretty impressive statistics about the performance of Kanye West’s new album The Life Of Pablo, which seems a little dubious in our opinion. It’s even been rumoured that Jay-Z has been shopping to the maligned streaming service around to potential buyers.
Despite boasting a hi-fidelity catalogue of music, including some exclusive content, Tidal still can’t seem to keep up with the big guns of the streaming industry. It’s ‘owners’ (introduced at a highly publicised launch party) include Alicia Keys, Win Butler & Régine Chassagne, Beyoncé, Calvin Harris, Chris Martin, Daft Punk, Jack White, Jason Aldean, J. Cole, Kanye West, Deadmau5, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna and Usher.
The hope that its celebrity endorsement, exclusive content and hi-fi music would create an attractive niche in a frankly saturated music streaming environment has fallen flat. The $19.99-a-month fee seems a little hard to justify when Spotify is offering an even larger library of music for just $11.99-a-month. As of this week, Tidal has surpassed the three-million-member mark, however, that also pales in comparison to Spotify’s 30-million subscribers and Apple’s 11-million mark.
Additionally, Tidal was hit with a $5 million lawsuit by Yesh Music Publishing and John Emanuel of American Dollar, alleging that Tidal had infringed on their copyright as well as owing them unpaid royalties. However, Tidal rebuked the claims, saying they had indeed paid in full all of the applicable royalties to Yesh Music.
Despite the recent spat of strife for the company, there is a bit of good news for first-time subscribers of the streaming service. Tidal has now decided to extend the free trial period thanks to none other than Yeezy himself, which makes sense considering that the rapper’s exclusive release of TLOP onto the platform has ended up doubling Tidal’s fan base.
Furthermore as of today, TLOP will be available across all streaming platforms, including Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play and Rhapsody. It will be interesting to not only see the stats of TLOP now that it’s available world wide, but also where Tidal will go from here. Things do not look good.
Image: thesource.com
Jay-Z owned streaming service TIDAL has finally revealed the streaming numbers for Kanye West‘s The Life Of Pablo.
It’s a lot. Like, a LOT.
As reported by Billboard, Tidal, who celebrate their first anniversary tomorrow, reckon that Kanye’s album was streamed more than 250 million times in the first ten days alone.
Now, that is huge, particularly considering the exclusivity of the Tidal-only release and the absolute trainwreck of a disaster that has been the botched release of ‘Ye’s seventh studio album.
Look. We’re calling bullshit. Not to say they’re outright purposefully lying (although they may well be,) but it seems incredibly likely that they’re twisting their numbers in some way. It simply does not seem realistic that TLOP was streamed that many times on a platform so small that Spotify earned nearly double Tidal’s total subscribers in the past three months alone. And let’s be real – who do you know who uses it compared to Spotify or Apple Music?
For comparison, Justin Bieber‘s Purpose was streamed 205 million times in its first week on Spotify last year, a platform which enjoys around 100 million subscribers, 30 million of which pay for the service. Additionally, as DJ Booth point out, Adele‘s blockbuster Hello video was streamed 250 million times on Youtube, a completely free service that doesn’t make you create an account, in two weeks.
Compared to Spotify’s 30 million paid subscribers, Tidal boasts a tighter 3 million (45% of which apparently opt for the hi-fidelity option at double the price, USD $19.99). Tidal also claims that TLOP single-handedly doubled their subscriber base, but maybe some of them are like me who forgot to cancel the subscription once my free trial ran out, and accidentally paid for a second month.
Even so, with three million subscribers, that means every single person signed up had to listen to the album at least four times a day, every day, for ten days.
Perhaps it’s possible that the 250 million streams were achieved if Tidal saw a MASSIVE influx of people signing up for a free month, but these users technically shouldn’t count as paid subscribers. Because, you know, they didn’t pay.
It may well be true, and well done to Kanye if it is. It’s a gorgeous album, certainly far better than Bieber’s! It’s just a really, really, really big number for a platform with a relatively tiny customer base.
Edit: A source close to the situation has informed us that the reported streaming numbers are correct as these figures allow the artist to get paid accordingly.
Our initial post also mentioned that it was off to see such astronomical numbers after Tidal had ferociously refused to reveal the TLOP streaming numbers (which is atypical as they have published streaming numbers for other releases), but the source asked us to clarify that it was actually Kanye, not Tidal, who was responsible for that.
In related news, West had previously stated that TLOP would only ever be available on Tidal. However, it is now available to stream on Apple Music and Spotify.
Image: Tidal
TIDAL, the streaming service run by rap mogul, Jay-Z is being sued to the cool tune of $5 million, with the lawsuit alleging that TIDAL is not paying proper royalties.
According to The Jasmine Brand, the lawsuit which has been pushed forward by John Emanuele, and Yesh Music, LLC has filed the federal lawsuit directly against Jay Z’s company, S Carter Enterprises.
Yesh Music, LLC claim that they are the owners of 118 copyrighted songs which belong to a group called The American Dollar- of which John Emanuele is a member- they go on to state that although all 118 songs are available on TIDAL, the music streaming giant had not obtained permission from the group to use their songs, citing copyright infringement, but that they have also been underpaid in royalties by the streaming company.
John Emanuele really chose to hammer the point home, pointing out TIDAL’s apparent dedication to the artist as being less than truthful.
“Ironically, when Defendant Carter purchased the Tidal Music Service in 2015, it claimed it would be the first streaming service to pay the artists. Different owner, same game,”
The $5 million sum was arrived at by claiming $150,000 in damages for each infringement. Although this definitely isn’t Jay-Z’s first day at lawsuit university, it seems unlikely that John Emanuele and Yesh Music, LLC will be seeing any money from Jay-Z and TIDAL, with the streaming company releasing a statement, slamming the plaintiffs and basically telling their lawyers to go back to school, which I guess is something you can do as long as you use the correct legal language.
“TIDAL is up to date on all royalties for the rights to the music stated in Yesh Music, LLC and John Emanuele’s claim and they are misinformed as to who, if anyone, owes royalty payments to them,” The statement said, before going onto detail that they are the ones who have the rights to the master recordings “through its distributor Tunecore and have paid Tunecore in full for such exploitations.”
From here, they basically rip apart their opposition, including not-so-subtly bringing up that the “entire catalogue in question streamed fewer than 13,000 times.” Ending things with yet another legal burn, the final nail in the coffin is hammered in by stating, “This is the first we have heard of this dispute and Yesh Music, LLC should be engaging Harry Fox Agency if they believe they are owed the royalties claimed. They especially should not be naming S Carter Enterprises, LLC, which has nothing to do with Tidal. This claim serves as nothing other than a perfect example of why America needs Tort reform.”
Image: quickmeme
It seems unlikely that after this particular rebuttal has essentially told Yesh Music, LCC to keep the name S Carter Enterprises out of their mouth, that this lawsuit will have the desired effect. In fact if the entire catalogue has been wiped from TIDAL after this ill-filed lawsuit, perhaps other artist will be more on the ball regarding who they should be directing their claims towards instead of just aiming for the brightest star and hoping the subsequent media attention might earn them a settlement.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAnGnevKxJE]
Image: Consequence of Sound
Jay-Z’s music streaming service TIDAL has hit ex-users with fees on credit cards in the past 24 hours.
The news was reported by a former customer and writer for The Verge who received a $19.99 fee on his card, and the following message:
“Dear User
We are sorry to inform you that due to an error, you have been billed $19.99 for a TIDAL subscription.
We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience, and have already refunded the amount to your account. However, it can take from 2-5 business days to show up on your credit card statement.
In addition to the full refund, we have also given you free access to TIDAL Premium for the next three months as a compensation. Your TIDAL account is now active, and you can log in with your existing username________@gmail.com and password.
Again, we apologize for this, and appreciate your patience and understanding.
Thank you.”
The error has revealed that past users accounts were not completely closed, as well as reactivating their accounts without permission.
Additionally, it was indicated that a subscription fee would be charged at the conclusion of the three months of free streaming.
Since the article was first published, TIDAL have updated the language on the subscription page indicating that customers would not be charged at the conclusion of the free subscription.
TIDAL was first launched by Norwegian/Swedish company Aspiro, but was brought out by Jay-Z in re-launched with glitz and glamour in March last year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYYGdcLbFkw
Two weeks after the re-launch the service fell out of the top 700 of the U.S iPhone Apps Chart.
We also road tested the service to see if it lived up to all the hype.
As voiced by many on social media, this latest ‘error’ could appear to some like a final desperate lunge to bring customers back though the doors.
https://twitter.com/Shaundar/status/689241454401605633
https://twitter.com/Shivian/status/689177981932056576
TIDAL is yet to comment any further on the issue.
Image: Facebook
Though there was a huge blowout of news when TIDAL, the music streaming service owned and operated by JAY Z, was launched, there hasn’t really been anything to hear about since that Drake / Apple Music / Tidal beef back in August. That’s changed today though, with TIDAL today announcing Tidal X: 1020 – a charity concert to celebrate hitting one million subscribers.
With all proceeds going to a number of nonprofit organisations and movements dedicated to fighting social injustices, TIDAL should be commended for doing what they’re doing. The lineup is massive too, with artists like JAY Z and Beyonce (obviously), Nicki Minaj, Usher, Prince and Lil Wayne playing, as well as a bunch of other emerging artists. If you’re a TIDAL subscriber, you get the first chance at tickets here now, and everyone else can buy them on October 2nd at 12pm (U.S time). It’ll all also be live streamed for everyone at Tidal.com, where you can donate to the causes if you feel so inclined.
“Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists” Tidal is platinum. 1,000,000 people and counting. Let’s celebrate 10/20 Brooklyn.
— Mr. Carter (@S_C_) September 29, 2015
It’s a great cause, and should be an amazing concert, but is one million subscribers really something worth celebrating so much? Spotify has over 20 million subscribers worldwide, and over 75 million active users. When TIDAL was launched I got the impression that it was going to be the Spotify killer, with people choosing a service with more dedication to artists and royalties – but apparently not. I’m not trying to rain on any parades here, I just kind of imagined that they would’ve or should’ve hit a million a while ago – it has been a few months now. We’ll see where it goes anyway, maybe revisit that whole issue when it hits its first birthday.
Check the full lineup for the benefit concert here, and keep it locked here for all your TIDAL news.
Tidal burst into the public eye a couple of months ago, in a dazzling flurry of celebrity power, social media, exclusive releases and more. It was also subject to immediate, severe criticism from basically everyone who wrote about it. (Us included, although we found good things as well as the bad.)
While the blogosphere has been eagerly updating its readers about the problems and changes and job losses and so on, we haven’t really heard many people actually talk about whether Tidal is actually any good. So we decided to fine out.
Five of us signed up for a month, tested it out, and reviewed it here. Enjoy!
Listening on:
James Tait: Car stereo, iPhone headphones
Georgia Bell: Beats headphones
Monique Hughes: I have been listening on my old-faithfuls* Sennheiser CX 300-II Precision buds (*of which I have bought about 6 pairs – at $70 a pop, JB-HiFi love me). I also synced up to my Sonos PLAY:5 Wireless Speaker System for a bit of ambiance while cooking dinner at home.
Lauren Ziegler: I tested a few things. Sennheiser earphones (also CX 300-II), Sony headphones, Bose wireless headphones, laptop speakers, Bose mini speakers. Just for good measure. Don’t ask me why I have so many audio devices, and don’t ask me if that’s all of them.
Alex Langlands: Sony MDR-1A Headphones
Sound Quality
J: The aux cord that plugs into my car stereo crackles at even the slightest whisper of movement. I don’t expect Tidal to fix this but, you know, come on. 3/10
G: The first song I decided to listen to was King Kunta by Kendrick Lamar. Being subscribed to Spotify, I decided to compare the quality of each service against each other. I strained my ears, but I really couldn’t tell. If anything, Spotify seemed to sound better, but maybe that’s just my bias. Next, I listened to Mariah Carey’s Infinity, trying to difference in quality. If I could describe it in one word, it would be ‘meh’. Not worse, not better, just meh. 7/10
M: It’s good, but that good? Sorry, it takes a more delicate assortment of inner ear bones than mine to hear the difference. Don’t get me wrong, listening in particular with the Sonos, everything from Nina Simone to The Weeknd sounded smashing – I just can’t really discern the difference. Incidentally Tidal does include quite a cheeky playlist called ‘What Hi-Fi?’ with an assortment of aurally crisp tunes ready to prove their musical superiority. 9/10
L: I played Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb on Spotify and Tidal, and played the second guitar solo on each service twice in a row. It was only through the Bose headphones (more expensive than the others combined and stunning quality) that I really experienced the great, mysterious lossless audio. It was good, but so is Spotify. But it wasn’t mind-blowingly, once-you-go-Tidal-you-never-go-back type deal, not even close. 8/10
A: There was a notable difference when comparing songs from both Spotify and iTunes as opposed to Tidal, but it wasn’t as big as I had hoped. While lossless audio excites audiophiles, it hardly appeals to the normal consumer. 7/10
Total: 34/50
Catalogue
J: Most stuff yeah, but I had an unnatural urge to listen to the theme song from batshit 80s cartoon Bananaman. Tidal didn’t have it and I was disappointed. Professor Snape-level disappointed. 5/10
G: I was quite impressed with ‘Tidal Rising’, a section dedicated to giving up-and-coming artists more exposure. Apart from that, it was very rap/R’n’B orientated, with a bit of pop thrown in the mix, nothing too enticing. 6/10
M: Oh dear, Tidal. This is where you let me down. I set about writing a list of a few somewhat obscure (at least on a global scale) artists to see what Tidal offered by way of their discography. I picked Wild Nothing, Client Liaison, Tensnake, Northeast Party House and Owl Eyes. Things started off well, with the entire discography of Wild Nothing and a beautiful biography. But things went south with Client Liaison (no EP, just End of the Earth), Tensnake (Spotify has his latest single Keep on Talking while Tidal lags behind), Owl Eyes (blank discography) and NPH weren’t even recognised as an artist. Sorry Tidal – dealbreaker. 5/10
L: I actually thought it was excellent. They had everything I wanted to listen to, from classic rock to underground rap to Late Night Tales to obscure ambient electronica. Local highlights included Moses Gunn Collective, Gang of Youths, Cassian and Jack Ladder. 9/10
A: One thing Jay-Z and the rest of the team have done well is reached far and wide to produce a very diverse catalogue. Aside from the big names who set up the service, the presence of smaller Australian acts such as The Middle East came as a pleasant surprise. Oh and it’s got Taylor (not 1989, but still a lot.) 9/10
Total: 34/50
Exclusive Content
J: A whole bunch of Rihanna stuff and zip-all else that I need about as much as a hole in the head. 1/10
G: ‘Exclusive content” is a misnomer for shit music that gets to jump to the front of the queue thanks to the elite and collective ownership of Tidal. For example, Willow Smith’s new song F Q-C #7. Like, really, who gives a crap about new music from Willow Smith? (editor’s note: actually it’s a great song – albeit not exclusive.) In this way Tidal just becomes a platform for friends of the rich and the famous to give their music exposure they couldn’t get otherwise. And ‘exclusive content’ means nothing these days. Nothing is ‘exclusive’ in the digital age. I could go and pirate any of this content more easily than I could sign up for Tidal’s services. 2/10
M: sorry, I didn’t really find anything here that sung to me (*cough*) N/A/10
L: Mehhhhhhhhhh. The only thing I found interesting, that I couldn’t find anywhere else, was Jack White’s last acoustic concert before he goes on hiatus. The video quality was awful and relentlessly stopped to buffer. Nothing else was ‘exclusive’ anyway. 3/10
A: Some aspects of the exclusive content did surprise me. Aside from a Rihanna song that made it to YouTube ten minutes after it was “exclusively” uploaded to Tidal, the fact that they’ve gone above and beyond and added the 2006 Daft Punk movie ‘Electroma’ was something special. 7/10
Total: 13/50
User experience
J: No different from just listening to my music library normally really, except it chews the unholy fuck out of your data. 5/10
G: I didn’t really like the layout of the page either. Spotify’s is much more user-friendly and pleasing to the eye. It actually kinda looked like a rip off of Spotify’s design actually. 3/10
M: I’ve got to hand it to Tidal here – the user interface is clean and simple, and yet it’s easy to sift through loads of content and flick from playlist to playlist without it feeling like too much of an effort. Even the basic playscreen, with its smooth round circle (reminiscent of Apple’s track wheel) feels nice. 8/10
L: I liked it. It was clean, easy to navigate, great search engine, excellent playlists – exactly like Spotify. In spite of my previous comment the video content was cool, and the website has an excellent blog section 7/10
A: Tidal was fairly easy to navigate and pleasant to use, but this was partially because it’s so similar to Spotify. Aside from that, the addition of high quality music videos was a nice addition, but with YouTube continuing to dominate the world in that area, it seemed somewhat unnecessary. 9/10
Total: 32/50
Value for money
J: $29.99 a month?
2/10
G: Please explain to me why paying $21.99 for Tidal is better than the $11.99 a month you pay for Spotify? Spotify also has more content, so I really think you are getting more bag for your buck there. 3/10
M: polished sounds and a gorgeous user experience aren’t enough to make up for what’s not there, and Tidal lacked a lot of my much loved artists. Maybe next time? 6/10
L: Triple the price of Spotify for exactly the same or possibly a slightly better service? 3/10
A: While Tidal is the highest quality streaming service you can find today, it does come with a mammoth price tag. While the likes of Spotify offer free usage with ads for an unlimited time, Tidal’s pricing seems a bit excessive and unwarranted 3/10
Total: 17/50
Would you switch from Spotify/any other streaming service to Tidal?
J: I don’t have either so… no?
G: God no
M: No, not yet. Maybe if they beefed up the available tunes.
L: If it was cheaper, had its own laptop app and didn’t eat my data, sure.
A: Nope
Best thing about it?
J: The hearty guffaws I let free when Kanye retroactively erased all traces of association with it from his social media
G: New and exclusive content
M: Tidal’s overflowing with gorgeous playlists that you can meander through over an afternoon – everything from Mew’s influences and Beyonce’s Festival Favourites to basic goodies like Tidal’s Ten. I rate them. Also, Tidal Rising is quite good, showcasing Say Lou Lou’s latest album and the single Worship by Years & Years as an example.
L: Playlists & great content
A: A whole load of content, exclusive and general. Plus it serves as a platform for video content.
Worst thing about it?
I want a second fucking yacht, okay? Is that too much to ask?
J: Going to bed with work at 6 the next morning, only to be rudely awakened from my slumber at somewhere between the hours of 3am and fuck my life o’clock to the full volume strains of Bitch Better Have My Money blaring forth from my iPhone. I am yet to find a reason why this happened beyond ‘Fuck You James, Signed Jay-Z’. I feel like if I messaged Tidal support to ask why that they would probably send back a compilation video of every time I’ve ever been hit in the groin with the laugh track from The Big Bang Theory dubbed in. That’s the kind of disrespectful customer experience they’re peddling. Fuck you Rihanna and fuck you Tidal.
G: Doesn’t bring anything new to the table
M: Their regular ‘top tracks’ lists seem to be dominated by rap. Bleeeeeghhhhhh.
L: $$$$$
A: The price tag
What would you change?
No really. We all want more yachts. Pay up.
G: The price
M: a) make an indie electro pop playlist and b) represent more Aussie indie bands.
L: $$$$$
A: Jay-Z, if you’re reading this I have a brilliant idea for you. Let’s start off with two questions; 1. What do audiophiles love most in the world? Music! 2. What streaming service does everyone else on the internet love more than life itself? Netflix. You already have the platform tap into this area which no other music streaming service has realised, yet you’re not using it. Get the new Kurt Cobain documentary, BBC’s ‘Seven Ages of Rock’, Almost Famous, those fucking Zombie films the Hilltop Hoods made, I don’t know. But if its music related in a documentary, interview or film format get it on there. People who love music also love learning about it and watching it. It’s clear that your service is aimed at audiophiles, so give them something to get truly excited about.
Final comments
At the end of the day I absolutely would’ve paid for it if Jack White called me and asked me to. Just saying.
G: The only thing ‘tidal’ is the tidal wave of condemnation and criticism the hifi-online streaming surface has come under. Not all of it is justified, but at the end of the day it’s just not that remarkable a service.
Call it crazy, but my theory is that because I was streaming Tidal on an internet browser, instead of through an actual App like Spotify, the quality wasn’t as good. Having an app for your streaming services also allows for other benefits, because you can control the app with certain commands, keystrokes and shortcuts.
I don’t think Tidal can compete with Spotify. Maybe if you didn’t already have a subscription to a streaming service, the Tidal would be somewhat enticing, but final verdict: don’t bother.
M: I was genuinely pleasantly surprised by what Tidal had to offer, and I think they’re not necessarily getting the credit that’s due. Alright, maybe “lossless sound” is a big pile of wank to most people, but the core offering is robust, with some impressive content (videos, bios, playlists and otherwise). Tidy up a few things around the edges and I’d genuinely consider jumping over.
L: To date I have received 17 stupid spammy emails from Tidal. Also Jack White didn’t personally call me. And let’s face it, that’s the only reason I arranged this entire thing.
Overall I was more impressed than I thought I’d be, but it’s definitely not enough for me to switch, and I don’t know many people who will find this advantageous enough, except for the populace who buy the modern equivalent of those old iPods which had U2’s autographs on it.
A: Look. I feel Tidal aimed at people who can afford the luxury of listening to high quality shit. In many ways I think its trying to bring back the element that was lost when Vinyl went out of fashion due to cassettes which I back. From an economic standpoint it’s hardly worth while in any circumstances when you can torrent music for free, but I feel from a music lovers stand point it’s completely viable. When Jay-Z first announced Tidal, he portrayed it as a movement as opposed to a music streaming service, and I’m pretty sure that’s what he has achieved. I don’t think they’re trying to make a profit as much, more start a very expensive conversation about audio quality and its importance. I think they’re saying that now we’ve become spoilt for choice when it comes to music, more often than not people are ripping shitty quality music off YouTube, putting it on their iPod with a 56kbps bit rate and listening to half of it before they change song and start another track which they’ll listen to two minutes of. I think Tidal is more an effort to try and make people remember that music is in fact an art form. Like imagine art galleries but its like a 32×32 sized pixaleted picasso, its not going to be as attractive. So despite the heavy price tag, Tidal is fighting the good fight.
TIDAL, Jay Z’s newest streaming service, has not been doing very well since its launch in March. Artists signed to the service have been questioning the business model, sales have apparently been terrible, and no one really knows why it’s meant to be so great. However, after around a month of it being around, an anonymous label has come forward with evidence that TIDAL’s royalty payments are almost double that of their competitors.
From the data we can see that each stream is paying around 1.2 cents ($0.012), whereas Spotify claims that they pay 0.72 cents ($0.0072) for each of their streams. While the standard for streaming is for the company to keep around 30% of profit, Jay Z has himself claimed that TIDAL only holds onto 25%, while giving 75% to royalty owners.
It’s important to keep in mind, however, that these numbers aren’t completely representative of all profits. Since TIDAL only launched in late March, and these numbers are for March, we might be able to see some more concrete data in the coming weeks for April and beyond. If it’s anything like this though, Jay Z and TIDAL are undertaking the ‘all for the artists’ approach very well, almost doubling the payment to rights owners. Hopefully the subscription to TIDAL picks up for artists’ sake.
We’ll be posting our own TIDAL reviews up this week – keep an eye out!