COOL/UNCOOL: Jay Z’s Tidal has opted to ignore the new-artist sector in favor of superstars, and the strategy is not working. For example, it’s believed that Tidal’s total streams average around 1m a day, while individual tracks on Spotify regularly hit that number. Tidal’s top-heavy branding approach, with its emphasis on these older, established acts, simply doesn’t have the currency that Apple has maintained by prioritizing newer acts, having discerned early on that the discovery process is part of the cool factor. How is it that the world’s richest corporation has managed to retain its coolness while Tidal seems to have missed the boat? Not only have the initial Tidal exclusives failed to move the needle, the Rihanna video exclusive on “American Oxygen” appears to have actually hurt the launch of the song, which sold only 19k in its first four days. Deepening the irony, Jay’s Roc Nation is both her label and her manager. Thus far, Tidal is seen by most observers as a big miss.
I really dislike how the media is reveling in TIDAL failing even though it just started. Can they give it some time to actually get it's sh*t together?
The big industry takeaway from the latest set of WikiLeaks revelations is the dramatic difference between the compensation packages of Sony execs and those of their counterparts at other labels.
I really dislike how the media is reveling in TIDAL failing even though it just started. Can they give it some time to actually get it's sh*t together?