MUMBAI: Despite having the backing of several world famous musicians, Jay Z’s music streaming service- Tidal, has made a rather small splash since being launched last month. The service, after peaking at number 83, has completely fallen out of the Apple top 700 app download chart in the US.
The fall from the iPhone app chart will no doubt come as a disappointment, considering Tidal was being supported by some of the biggest names in music including, Kanye West, Madonna, Chris Martin, Calvin Harris, Nicki Minaj and Beyonce, among others.
Several reports have indicated that since its launch, the streaming service has received a mixed response from fans. While Tidal claims that it offers artists better royalties as compared to other music services, the backing of so many mega-rich musicians has left many wondering why these musicians should be paid even more.
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Over the last few weeks, things have been rather tough for Jay Z’s music service. A number of musicians, including Lily Allen and Mumford and Sons, have criticised Tidal and the way it works. In addition to this, the company’s former CEO was removed, and has now been replaced by Peter Tonstad, former consultant for the Norwegian Ministry of the Environment, in what was called a “streamlining” move. Ironically, Andy Chen, Tidal’s previous CEO, was amongst those who pushed to get rap mogul- Jay Z associated with the service.
To add more misery to Tidal’s woes, rival services like Pandora and Spotify, have fared particularly well on the iPhone revenue chart, with the two music services taking 3rd and 4th place, respectively. In fact, Spotify seems to have gained a boost, even after being targeted by Tidal’s media campaign.
