#TidalForAll, or Not

Jay Z's streaming service, Tidal, was bought back in 2014 as a means for equity for musicians. Unfortunately, people didn't react to it quite like Tidal expected. People didn't like the way that Tidal seemed to be that the rich and famous were complaining about money issues.

An academic journal article entitled "Jay Z's Launch of Tidal is Far From Pitch Perfect," states that "promises to put money back in musicians' pockets might have piqued consumers' interest at another time and place. However, a stage full of superrich starts didn't exactly send the right message (Diaz)."

When Tidal came out with a video entitled "Tidal #TidalForAll, it didn't generate the expected reaction from fans. All you see is a bunch of well-off artists get together at someone's giant house, wearing their finest, and drinking champagne. Is this really the way to get people to help you? Probably not.

As well as giving off the wrong vibe, the service is more expensive than other services. Tidal comes in at a monthly fee of $9.99 for standard streaming and $19.99 for high fidelity. Having no ads is their big promotion. Other companies, such as Spotify and Pandora offer free listening capabilities, and you only have to listen to an ad every 30 minutes or so. "Most industry observers said the high cost and stiff competition will make it hard for Tidal to recruit streaming consumers, who prioritize price over quality (Diaz)." Diaz even says that millennials, the target audience of most streaming services, hardly ever listen to high fidelity music and therefore don't feel the need to pay more to gain access to it.

Diaz, Ann-Christine, and Mark Bergen. "Jay Z’S Launch Of Tidal Is Far From Pitch Perfect." Advertising Age 86.6 (2015): 0008. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web