Why Tidal Is in So Much Trouble

I bet Jay-Z and team are trying to find a way to cut their losses and save some face for how big a failure its been. I bet the end is near given the new Jay and Bae release is already on spotify. I wonder if there is any kind of competitive advantage (algorithm or software) they could sell to Spotify or Apple music.

 

I think their hopeful place was in exclusive content but music isn't TV. People aren't gonna hold on to a Tidal subscription waiting for the next Jay Z album like they do Netflix waiting on Stranger Things or whatever.

 

I tried using Tidal a few days ago to listen to The Carters, and it wouldn't work in-browser because I needed to update my FLASH PLAYER. Like, Flash, really? No thanks. I gave up.

 

Audiophiles. Tidal embraced MQA and integrates with boutique software, such as ROON and BluSound. Not sure the subscriber number is large enough of a market to make a difference for them, however.

 

They know they can't realistically compete with apple and Spotify. They're a branding tool, throwing tidal in a bunch of mercedes, shit like that.

 

Plus, people will just leak their "exclusive" music anyway to piss off Tidal. That Jay Z/Beyonce album was already in zip files an hour after it dropped/

 

They should double down by making Tidal exclusive to Pono players.

 

I dislike how there is no free trial. I never really got to use it.

 

I’m genuinely shocked Tidal has survived this long.

 

And hit the bigger services on Monday. I just waited and didn't even bother trying to find the leak or make an account. I knew it'd be coming sooner or later.

 

It’s for the hifi enthusiasts

 

or you know, google play music especially if you want to upload your own songs...

 

I have Apple Music and I probably have hundreds of albums that I uploaded on my own. I even have fun organizing b-sides from Apple Music into their own albums because you can edit the metadata

 

All three of them

 

This is the biggest problem. HiFi enthusiasts want physical media or FLAC files. They do not want to degrade sound by streaming. That's why I laugh when bluetooth headphones are marketed towards audiophiles. Ok, it's wired or nothing.

 

It’s a huge market actually

 

The service was doomed from the start... for many reasons.

1. For one thing its initial launch came off so damn pretensions and elitist.

2. Most of the population does not give a shit about lossless audio (especially people who are streaming music).. and not for $20, which is just ridiculously overpriced. So the one thing that makes them unique.. really isn't important to most people. A niche market isn't going to make your service a success.

3. Relying on exclusives is just a terrible business model. Music shouldn't be exclusive to any service whatsoever.. especially a full album. This just makes me instantly want nothing to do with your service. Also, it's proven to just lead to piracy.

4. Theres no real draw to the service. Why am going to use Tidal on my iPhone, when I could just use Apple's own service. Also, while I don't use Spotify.. it obviously already has a huge community being the first streaming service.

Jay Z is clearly way to prideful to end the service... but obviously it's not going to happen for them.

 

Only thing I'll defend about Tidal (and I'm just going off what someone I follow says) is that they apparently have plenty of hip-hop releases on their service that you can't get on Spotify and Apple Music, so that's nice I suppose