He noted that consumers' increasing mobile device usage simply means people are listening to more music, which makes room for new offerings. "It's very easy to overlook the importance of brand, but in an industry like music, brand really matters," said Andrew Lipsman, vice president of marketing and insights at researcher ComScore. The flashy relaunch of Tidal raises the question of whether it can hit mainstream popularity with a clever branding strategy. Tidal didn't provide subscriber numbers for its service. The refresh of Beats Music bodes more competitive pressure for Tidal, which will face rivalry not only from the first movers but also a revamped service powered by Apple, the world's most valuable corporation. That compares with Spotify's 10 million paid members at the same time.Īpple, which is reportedly planning a relaunch of Beats Music later this year, has not disclosed fresh user numbers for Beats since the acquisition. Although that price tag was impressively large, Beats Music's subscriber rolls weren't: it had about 250,000 paying subscribers at the time Apple agreed to buy it. Apple bought the company, both the headphone and streaming arms, last year for $3 billion.
Tidal's relaunch under Jay-Z feels like the kind of streaming music service Beats would have.īut of course, Beats already has a streaming music service: Beats Music. That company used celebrity placement of its headsets to amass 60 percent of the $1 billion premium headphones market, according to NPD Group. The star-power marketing frenzy of Tidal's relaunch is straight out of the playbook of Beats Headphones. It launched initially in the US in October. It doesn't have a free tier that will let people listen without paying by hearing ads. Purchased by Shawn "Jay Z" Carter in January in a deal worth $56 million, it offers lower-definition sound for $9.99 a month, the going rate for most subscription streaming services. Tidal is a subscription streaming music service, along the same lines as Apple's Beats Music and the paid version of Spotify. Tidal representatives couldn't provide specifics. The event also announced a Tidal partnership with mobile carrier Sprint. However, the event didn't indicate whether those artists or others would contribute exclusive music to Tidal, which would make it the only place to hear some of the world's most popular artists. Alicia Keys called it "a moment that will forever change music history, the first-ever artist-owned global music and entertainment platform." Those musicians and more than a dozen others shared a stage to sign a document declaring them owners of Tidal. The unveiling followed a day of celebrity hype through social-media activity by high-profile artists like Kanye West, Rihanna and Madonna, and through a teaser video that brought together a dizzying collection of music megastars into one room. High-profile faceoffs like Taylor Swift pulling her catalog from Spotify have brought the issue of artist compensation to the fore. The service will test whether its message of having artists' seal of approval will resonate with consumers. Tidal's proposition - high-quality audio and video combined with editorial content in a service that is owned by the world's most beloved musical artists - will ride on the success of branding.
Streaming music continues to grow rapidly, and companies like Spotify and Pandora took a lead in the race by sprinting ahead early.
The star-studded unveiling of Tidal will test whether streaming music's competitive field is still fresh enough for a flashy newcomer. Streaming music service Tidal relaunched Monday with high-quality audio at $19.99 a month as the artist-owned alternative to the likes of Spotify, backed by Jay Z and more than a dozen other well-known musicians.
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