He may be one of hip hop’s biggest names, but that doesn’t guarantee success. Just a month following the launch of Tidal, a new music streaming service billed as “the first music streaming service that combines the best high fidelity sound quality, high definition music videos and expertly curated editorial,” Jay Z and a few of his A-list friends including Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Deadmau5, Daft Punk, Alicia Keys, Rihanna and wife Beyoncé, are facing defeat.
Two weeks after Tidal made its U.S. debut, iPhone top 20 download chart, the app nosedived out of the top 700, according to BGR. In other words, users prefer 700 other apps to the music mogul’s Tidal. The issue? The cost. Subscribers have the choice between forking over $10 a month for digital audio-quality, a format similar to Spotify or $20 a month for CD-quality sound. Turns out people just aren’t feeling it. And why would they with apps like Spotify and Pandora offering basically the same service for less and in many cases for free?
BGR also reports that as of April 20, its main rivals, Pandora and Spotify, landed No. 3 and No. 4 on the U.S. iPhone revenue chart, respectively. A first for two music streaming services hitting the top four in sales simultaneously.
And while Hov’s app could make a comeback over time, this rough reality check follows news that Tidal laid off 25 employees on Friday, April 17, including its founding CEO, Andy Chen. According to Business Insider, a memo from the company read, “We’ve eliminated a handful of positions and refocused our company-wide talent to address departments that need support and cut redundancies.”
