Jay-Z‘s music streaming service Tidal is not what the music listeners are asking for. Currently the market for music steaming services is already overcrowded. We have Spotify, Youtube, Google Play, and iTunes already firmly established in the market. If you’re going to enter into the already crowded music streaming market your going to need a unique selling point. Tidal doesn’t seem to have strong unique selling point. The ones that it does have don’t seem compelling enough for customers to want to migrate platforms for. Other platforms have huge inherent advantages over tidal. Unless Jay-Z has a trump card to deliver more value, Tidal is doomed.
Google, Spotify, and Apple have huge user bases already subscribed to their streaming service. Google has Android phones with Google Play pre- installed into their devices. If that wasn’t enough Google also has a music steaming service though YouTube. Which has over a billion users a month using its services.
Apple has integration of Apple Music into their existing hardware and software. This represents a huge amount of music consumers.
ITunes already is the most popular online music market place. It has the ability to convert its customers directly onto its streaming service.
Spotify has an extremely active set of music curators creating playlists. These user bases give all these companies huge advantages that Tidal won’t have. Without other compelling reasons, I don’t see customers leaving their existing services.
We already have over five major music streaming services with a similar model as Tidal. Amazon Prime, Apple Music, Google Play Music, Rhapsody, and Spotify are all trying to get you to subscribe to their service. This is not even counting internet radio services such as Pandora and Slacker. With so many names in the music streaming sector its almost impossible for Tidal to stand out.
Tidal is doomed, they have huge competitors with huge install bases compete with. This combined with the sheer number of music streaming services that they have to compete with in the sector put them in a rough spot. The only two things Tidal has to distinguish itself are its high definition sound and the strength of Jay-Z’s brand. The first of which the average consumer doesn’t put much value in. This was exemplified by a famous NPR survey. The survey showed that most people can’t tell the difference between the high and low quality versions of songs. The people who can tell in my experience buy vinyl records and aren’t going to be interested in a using a steaming service for sound quality.
Jay-Z has had a “Roc” solid brand over the years. I can see why he might think his brand is enough to float Tidal. The issue is Jay-Z’s brand is based on music and his influence as a musician has slowly decreased as he has taken time to focus on business ventures. Admittedly Jay-Z’s influence is still incredibly high. At his lowest, Jay-Z is still far above most musicians highest level of influence. Jay has a lot of influence don’t get me wrong, but it has its limits. This play at pushing Tidal was an over reach for his brand as it is now.
I have no ill intentions towards Jay-Z. I think he is an excellent rapper and a proven business man. I really wish the best for him and I would love to see Tidal succeed. That being said when I look at Tidal I can’t see it working as it is. There is too much working against its success, and honestly Tidal does not having enough things going for it. Jay-Z has had a lot of successful business ventures, but I am willing to bet that this will standout as one of the few times Jay-Z has publicly failed.
