Jay Z's app is a spectacular failure

folarin okunola

April 22, 2015 10:15 AM

After taking multiple shots at its main rivals, Tidal is at a new disappointing position on the charts.

Jay Z's Tidal is failing, and fast too.

The main message when Tidal made its final push at the end of March was clear: other music streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora paid peanuts to artistes, while Tidal offers a better deal.

The mistake it made however, was that it chose to use Nicki Minaj and Beyonce as spokespersons for the app. The result was people got a mixed message: They should feel sorry about how little money Beyonce makes from music streaming services (but she’s a multi-millionaire?).

BGR.com reports that two weeks after Tidal briefly cracked the iPhone U.S top 20 download chart, it has crashed out of the top 700. It would seem that consumers have limited pity for Beyonce.

New CEO PeterTonstad, who was a former consultant for the Norwegian Ministry of Environment, has a lot of work to do to bring the app back into relevance – if he can.

To add insult to Tidal’s injury, its main competitors are now experiencing massive surges. As at April 20, Pandora and Spotify occupied 3 and 4 positions on the U.S iPhone revenue chart, respectively – this is a first. To achieve this, Pandora and Spotify had to edge Candy Crush Saga out of the top 4 revenue chart, a mean feat in itself.

The unfortunate thing is, it seems like Tidal’s attacks on both Spotify and Pandora have actually helped to increase public awareness of the two apps, thereby boosting their download performances. Even Beats Music has started cracking the U.S iPhone top 20 revenue chart.

This just goes to show the problem with attacking popular apps – negative media usually helps promote them. Examples are Twitter and Snapchat who both rode the waves of initial criticism and controversy to mainstream success.

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