Image via YouTube Screen Capture
Everyone knows about Tidal. In case you don’t, Tidal is a service where fans can directly support their favorite artist, have access to exclusive content, watch high-definition videos, purchase tickets to events and listen to CD-quality music. That sounds like an awesome service. However, the reception from the public was a big fat no!
Watch the Tidal announcement featuring Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Usher, Madonna and other artists here:
Has Tidal’s wave crashed?
When Tidal first launched there was a whole bunch of celebrities on stage. All they talked about was control over their content and profits. The celebrities made it all about them. As a content creator I completely understand. This is our livelihood, but fans don’t care about artists profits and control over content. They really don’t care about profits when the people doing the complaining are millionaires while fans are the other 99%. The raw truth is your fans want to know what is in it for them.
Can Tidal ride the wave of success? Heck to the yes.
Everyone is knocking, mocking and predicting the demise of Tidal because Amazon, Spotify, Pandora, Tidal and other music streaming services and YouTube all offer pretty much the same thing. But Tidal has a huge advantage other music streaming services don’t. What Tidal can offer is the artist.
I know this contradicts my initial argument, but think about it. I am not talking about the transaction part, which was what Tidal was initially pushing. Since Tidal is owned by the artists, the artists can create a real personal connection with their fans. What Tidal can sell is a relationship between the artist and fan. That is something Amazon, Spotify, Itunes, YouTube and other services cannot offer. It will justify people spending $20 a month instead of watching the same boring ass videos on YouTube. So what can Tidal do to separate themselves from the pack?
- Feature up and coming new artists. I am emphasizing the new part!
- Offer exclusive live chats between celebrities and fans.
- Show videos highlighting the day in the life of a featured artist. Kind of like short documentaries!
Those are just a few of many ideas. To separate itself from the music streaming pack, Tidal must humanize their artists. Let the fans get to know them. The benefit for the artist is that the artist can control their image and content, can build up a loyal fan base and they would increase their profits. The benefit for Tidal is that the artist’s performance and frequent activity on Tidal is tied to their success. That means more profit for Tidal. Most importantly, what is the benefit for the fan? Besides the content, it would mean “intimate” access to their favorite artist/celebrity.
People are hungry to know who their favorite celebrities really are. That’s why tabloid magazines exist, but Tidal can get around that. With that connection with the fans, the artists can tell their own story. The point is when people feel invested in something and create trusting relationships with people they know, they will invest their money.
What do you think?
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I can’t feel sorry for these mega rich artist ‘moaning’ about loosing money. its difficult to feel empathy, when there are so many people struggling and trying to make ends meet. The world is in recession, this stuff isn’t that important.
How do people listen to music? In their car or at work through crappy ear buds and cheap speakers. Tidal on the logitech speakers I got from Wal mart has absolutely no value to me. I have the free spotify app on my work computer. I know I will love the next some that comes up because I picked it. I put in on random and hear a few commercials. I’m not stealing music and I don’t care if Jay Z and the rest of them make a dime. I don’t think I have one song on my Spotify playlist from any of the people on that stage. Tidal can’t offer anything you can’t find for free on the internet. You can’t impress anyone with your tidal stream they can’t see it like your overpriced Beat headphones.
Unfortunately for Jay-Z, he chose to market this new venture all wrong. Instead of advertising Beyoncé in a full-length fur coat sipping champagne and toasting with other rich stars, he should have been promoting the opportunity to introduce consumers to new artists and and the idea of helping those artists get paid a fair price for their work so that they can make a living from their artistry. Jay-Z failed to advertise the best features of Tidal and he failed to properly position his company in an already crowded music-streaming market; but, surrounded by Yes Men and his own inflated ego, Jay-Z thought that “paying more to make sure your favorite artists get a bigger cut” was a good marketing spiel. So yeah, Tidal is a #fail unless Jay-Z pulls his head out of his behind long enough to rebrand the company and provide a value proposition that consumers will be willing to pay for.