Jay-Z thought he was making history with his new Tidal service. He has made history, but not the kind he expected. Some are calling Tidal the biggest disaster in the history of the music industry. That may be a hyperbole, but there is no denying that Tidal is going down like a sinking ship. Forbes recently slammed Jay-Z in an article on why he can’t save the music industry.
“It’s hard to know what Jay-Z was thinking when he launched music streaming service Tidal . He certainly wasn’t thinking about his millions of fans. Most consumers don’t want to pay for music. Any streaming business that ignores that reality is doomed to fail.”
The Daily Beast describes what many see as the reason for Tidal’s epic failure .
“The idea behind Tidal is that these higher subscription fees will lead to greater royalties for the artists—so it’s pretty hard to understand how this endeavor is ‘for fans,’ as Jay Z claims.”
The Daily Beast notes that Jay-Z thinks that fans’ money will now go directly into artists’ pockets, but there really is no benefit to fans if the monthly cost is more than other services, such as Spotify or Apple’s Beats Music. As Tech Crunch reported, Jay-Z tried to mock other services this past weekend in order to prop up the disastrous Tidal.
“He ripped on Google as well as Jimmy Iovine, head of Apple’s Beats Music, for apparently trying to buy him out. He roasts YouTube for what he considers tiny payouts to artists…Then Jay Z, also referring to himself as Jigga and Hova, addressed criticism that Tidal’s partnered artists are rich, so why should fans care about making sure they’re paid?”
Perhaps Jay-Z doesn’t realize that in his sinking Tidal ship, he is bringing down the artists who signed on. Some of them include Madonna, Rihanna, Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, and even Taylor Swift. Most of the artists who acted like they were becoming a part of music history at the launch event have nothing to say about the service now. There are still rumors that Jay-Z and Beyoncé plan to release a joint album for Tidal, but that has been mocked endlessly on Twitter.
Rihanna, who is rumored to be launching her upcoming album on Tidal, was hit with a disaster when she debuted her video for “ American Oxygen ” on Tidal. Many think the reason the song flopped is because it debuted on such an unpopular music service. She, as well as other artists who are still on board, may want to take a jump off Jay-Z’s Tidal desperately sinking ship.
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