Last year, Jay Z introduced his newest brainchild, a streaming service called Tidal that promised to put music back in the hands of musicians and ensure a heightened listening experience. It seemed also to imply it would restore sanity and cure all disease. And how couldn’t it? With an army of rich musicians including Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Madonna and Nicki Minaj rallying behind it, it seemed like a foolproof plan. Unfortunately for Jay, Tidal has become more of a barricade than a blessing.
For a quite some time, Tidal hasn’t been faring well. The service’s base rate to access music on the site is $9.99. This is steep compared to other services such as Spotify, which has a free streaming option. A month after Tidal’s release, Mashable called it a “tanking embarrassment,” writing that it “botch[ed] just about every aspect of its marketing message” and lacked “support from the artists who stood up for it” upon its release.
But now, as 2016 has begun to run its course, Tidal has still been plaguing listeners by hoarding releases from artists such as Rihanna, Beyoncé and recently Kanye West inside the confines of the uppity exclusive discotheque of streaming services. These events have proven aggressively annoying for the consumer but great for Tidal.
According to Variety, the release of Rihanna’s album Anti got Tidal 1 million trial subscribers in less than a day. Beyoncé’s “Formation” music video also brought reluctant fans to the service. When Kanye released The Life of Pablo exclusively on Tidal, Tidal’s app sales shot to the top of the charts. Yeezy fans bit the bullet and signed up for the godforsaken service to hear the album Kanye had been hyping for months on end.
But are these new Tidal users staying for good? Or have they just signed on for long enough to reap the benefits before their free trials run out? Tidal hasn’t necessarily been giving them good reason to stay. TechCrunch reported that many users who tried to order Kanye’s album though Tidal never received the download. Tidal was also accused of leaking Rihanna’s latest album before its release date. The service eventually gave Kanye fans a refund, and the Rihanna rumors were never confirmed, but even the news of these alleged stumbles pushes Tidal deeper into its pigeonhole as an untrustworthy service.
The idea of having a streaming service owned by the musicians themselves seems legitimate. But when Tidal, which on a basic level doesn’t even operate well, also charges fans exceedingly large amounts to pay a small group of multimillionaires, it becomes more of a wall between musicians and fans than a link.
For now, we can all pray that by the time Beyoncé releases her next album, Tidal will be long gone.
