Can Tidal Make a Dent in the Crowded Streaming Space?

by Felix Richter, Statista.com

Some of the biggest names in the music industry joined forces last night to announce the relaunch of Tidal, a music streaming service that offers lossless streaming aimed at audiophiles.

The announcement certainly didn’t lack fanfare with the likes of Madonna, Kanye West, Beyoncé and Daft Punk among the artists who signed a declaration to “take back the music industry”.

Jay Z, who had acquired Aspiro, Tidal’s parent company, earlier this month for $56 million, went on record saying that Tidal will offer artists the transparency that other streaming services lack and that subscribers will profit from exclusive material offered by the service’s prominent endorsers / co-owners. At $19.99, a subscription to Tidal’s Hi-Fi streaming service will be twice as expensive as most of its competitors’ offerings, but a Premium subscription, including everything but lossless quality streaming, will be available for $9.99.

It will be interesting to observe, if and how Tidal can make an impact in the crowded streaming space. There are already numerous companies competing for the money of music fans and apart from Pandora, which has been around for almost a decade now, none has managed to separate itself from the pack. Our chart, based on data by Edison Research, illustrates the current state of the U.S. streaming industry.

This chart illustrates the adoption of music streaming services in the United States.

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