News - 25/04/2016

Beyoncé’s exclusive will boost TIDAL numbers, but can it make the service a success?

Beyoncé’s exclusive will boost TIDAL numbers, but can it make the service a success?

TIDAL is really making the most of its big-name artist co-owners. On Saturday, Beyoncé premiered her visual album “Lemonade” on HBO, announcing that it would be available immediately and exclusively on TIDAL to stream and download. 

According to the New York Times, the TIDAL exclusive was to last only until midnight on Sunday - just over 24 hours - at which point the album was expected to be available for download, but not to stream, everywhere else. However, as of Monday morning in the UK there is still no sign of the album on iTunes. In terms of streaming, rumours are that the exclusive to TIDAL may be permanent.

As a result of the exclusive - and just like with Kanye West’s latest album - TIDAL’s app surged in the iOS chart on both sides of the atlantic. However it has already dropped back to the lower-end of the Top 10 both in the US and UK. 

In addition, fans may taking claims that Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” will only ever be available to stream on TIDAL with a pinch of salt. Kanye West said the same thing before making “The Life of Pablo” available on Spotify just a month later. 

Spotify, a company that generally keeps quiet about exclusives of this kind, decided to speak up on this latest exclusive. Jonathan Prince, Spotify’s Global Head of Comms, stated to Mashable: “We believe long-term exclusives are bad for artists and they’re bad for fans. Artists want as many fans as possible to hear their music, and fans want to hear the music they’re excited about - exclusives get in the way of both. Of course, we understand that short promotional exclusives are common, we don’t have a total policy against them, and we certainly respect the choice of artists to decide what’s right for them.”

The fact is that the growing number of artists that decide to release albums exclusively with one service are hurting the subscription ecosystem as a whole, with fans understandably annoyed that the $120 per year they pay only enables them to listen to the latest releases if they are lucky enough to be with the right service. 

TIDAL certainly continues to receive a boost from these exclusives, but do people love the service enough to stick around? This will be the biggest challenge for the company, as Beyoncé and Kanye releases do not happen every year. 

 

(Andrea Leonelli) 

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