*Now that Apple Music is setting the stage for launching at the end of the month, talk is starting to surface about whether Jay Z’s Tidal music-streaming service can survive the coming invasion.
As noted by TheWrap.com, Tidal has been struggling to a proper foothold in the music-streaming landscape since it’s all-star re-launch in March. Challenges the company continues to face include attracting more users, developing a clear brand and convincing consumers of its unique features.
“Tidal’s mission is to attract an audience. That was the case on the day it launched. It was the case on the day before Apple Music, and it’s still the case today,” Russ Crupnick, managing partner of the music-industry marketing firm MusicWatch, told TheWrap.
Although it doesn’t officially launch until June 30, Apple Music is already making its presence felt as it’s debut on Monday (June 8) put a dent in the stock prices of its rivals, including Tidal’s parent company, Aspiro, which is traded on the Stockholm Bourse. In addition, Apple Music boasts built-in recognition with Apple, which has popular devices and a very big base of subscribers. As a result, the conversion of new customers won’t be hard, considering many of its subscribers have banked credit cards and can easily access Apple Music with just a password.
Adding to all this is Drake, who was previously aligned with Tidal before jumping ship to turn up at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on Monday. Not a good look for Tidal at all.
Nor any of the other music streaming services overall, as Apple has definitely shaken things up.
“Apple’s announcement crystallized that it’s really difficult to create a music service that is dramatically different or any more compelling than any other — even Apple didn’t do that,” Crupnick says.
While distinguishing themselves among consumers is a universal challenge, customer loyalty is a factor that can get in the way of new music-streaming services capturing the attention of the music loving public.
“When you ask people about Spotify and Pandora and YouTube, they say, ‘I am really happy with this,” Crupnick explained to TheWrap. “I love the features on this. It’s not like we’re all going around saying, ‘Oh boy, I wish I had a new car that actually started in the morning.”
Nevertheless, the site notes that there are artists who like Tidal in light of there being was no free version of the site, which has songs available in 31 global markets for $9.99 or $19.99 a month. With that, there are also consumers who dig the site and its artist-centric content.
“There’s a contingent out there that is really interested in artists’ videos and following artists,” Crupnik said. “Not a mainstream (service) but an imprint, a niche of music fans.”
As it stands now, Tidal is lagging far behind its competitors in regards to subscribers. As of last Fall, the company had 512,000 users. Industry players now put the subscriber numbers for newly re-launched Tidal at about 800,000, but caution that includes many trials and free subscriptions, TheWrap reports.
The site goes on to acknowledge current projections, which suggest that Tidal will be at about 500,000 paid subscribers at the end of 2015 (compared to Spotify’s 60 million total subscribers and 15 million paid).
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