Within days, Tidal was being called a flop across the internet. Vania Schlogel, Tidal's chief investment officer and chief industry liaison, admits that the launch — internally referred to as "the 30th" — could have been handled better. When I asked her if she would do it again the same way, she just says "no."
"I just did not anticipate that within 48 hours people would jump in so quickly and tell this story for us as if it’s gospel. That was so fast." The plan had been to launch with the mission statement and then launch each new feature individually with some fanfare, but Tidal hadn’t counted on the speed of internet judgement.
"We weren’t even given a month of our own actions to tell the story," Schlogel says, somewhat pensively. "Had we known at the time — had I known at the time — yeah, we would have filled that void more with our own words and then backed it up with actions. But at the time, we just thought, okay we’re going to back it up with action and that would be enough."
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Some stats on the service in the article:
Since the new ownership group acquired Tidal, subscribers have nearly doubled, jumping from 500,000 to 900,000 in just two months. That includes over 200,000 Hi-Fi subscribers, up from 12,000 at the end of 2014, according to the company’s public filings.
But Tidal’s small subscriber base is apparently engaged with the service: Nicki Minaj’s "Feeling Myself" music video featuring Beyoncé hit 500,000 views in 10 days. That’s nothing on a service like YouTube, which has 1 billion users, but the company sees it as proof that subscribers are tuning in.
Which is crazy to me. I'm subscribed to Tidal, but even I knew after watching that press conference it was going to rub a lot of ppl the wrong way, and rightfully so. Only thing I wish was diff about this whole process.
I think if they got independent artists to speak at the launch rather than filthy rich celebrities, then I don't think the backlash would've been so harsh
Which is crazy to me. I'm subscribed to Tidal, but even I knew after watching that press conference it was going to rub a lot of ppl the wrong way, and rightfully so. Only thing I wish was diff about this whole process.
That press conference was such a huge waste. Had that been done properly, things would have been so different
The press conference was a bad idea I cant believe they didn't expect people to be turned off.
But they really are turning it around and they're about to reach a million subscribers. They need to keep pushing the exclusives and the ticket pre-sales that sets them apart.
The Made In America giveaway was a great idea. They need more of that.
Which is crazy to me. I'm subscribed to Tidal, but even I knew after watching that press conference it was going to rub a lot of ppl the wrong way, and rightfully so. Only thing I wish was diff about this whole process.
I mean!!!
First of all, they shouldn't have opened TIDAL to the public UNTIL after the press conference.
They should have sold the service to the public. What will they get from it? How are they different?
Clear the air about the price misunderstanding
Student discounts? etc
Instead, they let Alicia ramble on w/ a fourscore and 7 yrs ago speech about how artists will benefit and signed a piece of paper.
Yeah her speech was a bit cringeworthy to be honest quoting Nietzsche and all that, it seemed so self-important I think that was one of the main reasons it got so much backlash
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That was the moment I knew it was going to be a mess.
I think that was one of the main reasons it got so much backlash