Jay-Z’s attempt to get into the music streaming business, Tidal, is total washout. It’s sort of funny to see the glee with which Tidal’s disaster has been assessed and found wanting. I personally don’t believe Jay-Z will suffer long-term – he’s still a rich, successful man and many rich, successful men have some bad ideas and bad investments in their portfolios. But it is funny because many of us believed that Jay was just trying to inflate Tidal and then quickly sell it for a big profit and now that’s sort of impossible. It’s also funny because Jay-Z and Beyonce have lived in the bubble too long – the bubble where everyone tells them that they’re brilliant and every one of their ideas is profitable, so it’s nice to see Jay have to face some hard truths about his bad business decision, even if he just shrugs it off as a media-driven “smear campaign.”
Why bring this up? Bloomberg Business ran a lengthy article about “Why Jay-Z’s Tidal is a Complete Disaster.” You can read the full piece here – Jay did not agree to an interview, which is fine, and the article doesn’t suffer for it. It’s written as a magazine-style analysis of just went wrong, why the music-streaming business is so tricky, and how Jay is going to have to likely eat a $56 million loss (that was how much he invested in Tidal). There’s also a discussion about why Jay took such a big risk, only to fail so hard, so publicly. The consensus opinion: Jay tried to this Tidal scheme hoping to line his pockets big time, because it’s his goal to be a billionaire. Jay’s apparently worth more than $500 million now, so he’s halfway there. But Tidal isn’t going to be where he doubles his money, you know? Anyway, the Bloomberg piece is a good read and it’s not even a slam-piece on Jay. The moral of the story is basically “finding a substantial revenue stream from streaming music is really difficult, but bless his heart for trying.”
Oh, and here’s something funny, also from the Bloomberg story: Sony might pull all of Beyonce’s music from Tidal. HAHAHA. Tidal and Sony haven’t reached a deal yet and Sony is threatening to yank Bey’s music and all of the Sony-released music from Tidal. Awkward. For what it’s worth, the Sony Music CEO said that they weren’t going to pull Beyonce or any of their artists’ music from Tidal and they’re rooting for Tidal. We’ll see.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
Greed is not good.
Exactly. His goal is to be a billionaire? Talk about greedy
But capitalism is? Not exactly a Jay Z fan, but he’s right when he says that instead of saying “greed is not good” when Apple rolls out its 567th iPhone, people just line up to buy it.
Unfortunately, here, Jay Z did not have product that people genuinely wanted, but I admire his hustle. No one gets rich by sitting on his/her couch. He went for it and unfortunately, it didn’t work.
There’s nothing at all wrong with capitalism.
Capitalism built this country. Communism destroyed Russia.
Government regulated capitalism built this country. Unregulated free-market capitalism has threatened to destroy this country time and time again until the governement swooped in and maintained homeostasis. Capitalism is not without flaws but at least when it’s regulated, the ebbs and flows can be be monitored and controlled for.
He’ll find a way to make it work. Headlines like this only motivate someone like Jay.
Now if you want to talk about disasters, how about that yellow suit?? She really shows her Texas with outfits like that.
It might motivate him but so far he is getting very angry at the critics. It’s okay to criticize Jay Z, motivation or not, he is still human after all and creating businesses that require public consumption in order to be successful. He is also worth more than 500 million, I don’t understand why he worries about the headlines in the first place. I agree that he’ll make it work, he just needs to re-strategize.
For him and for a lot of people at that level it’s less about the money but more about the achievement, and building something that will last. Forgive me if I’m preaching to the choir, don’t mean to sound like I know it all, because I certainly don’t. I live a very blue collar life, however used to date someone who hobknobbed with Bill Gates and such ilk, once upon a time. He opened my eyes to the world of the superrich a bit. There’s a lot of savagery in that world. A quest for dominance that never sleeps. Thx 4 your reply
She looks like a canary in that vile ensemble, kaligula. You know what they say about taking the girl out of Tex…. And what has she done to her face? Please say it’s not just me who’s puzzled by how different/older/grubbier she looks.
I haven’t noticed any changes in her face…. Will keep an eye out for that. It does happen as women get older…. I remember when I turned (a certain age), my face seemed to literally fall overnight, it was very strange. Hormones are some da** powerful sh**
As for the taking the girl out of Texas, exactly!!! lol thx 4 your reply
I don’t notice changes in her face, per se, what I notice is that stupid Stepford Wife smile she plasters on all the time now. What the heck is that??
@Tea I also noticed that Bey’s face looks different. She has had some minor work done. But nothing near what KarKat Face perpetrated on herself. And yeah….Tidal is a let-down.
Um, there are loads of Texan women who know how to dress. She hasn’t been close to her Texan roots in a long time, so I think you can probably thank the fact that she thinks she’s a fashionista for this.
But thanks for insulting an entire state.
Seriously. Don’t conflate Dallas with Texas.
are all his friends that he got to support it gonna lose $$ too?
Why do I feel bad for him? He has more money than I’ll ever see even if he lost 3/4 of it. I guess I just want everyone to do well. No shaundenfreude (or however it’s spelled) here.
I guess you do because there’s a high chance you’re richer than he’ll ever be, even with all of his money. Corny but true.
I think it was too much too soon even for Jay Z with his immense wealth and influence in the music industry. Fans may adore you, tabloids may want to record your every move, people may want to talk about you, but not everything can be turned into profits.
Tidal should have started on a smaller scale, price and publicity wise, and build grounds from there. However since it was a promotional extravaganza from the start, much more was expected from it. You put a baby in a 56-million dollar crib, the latter doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a baby. For all I know, Jay Z could have done all of that for under a million, he could have built his own from scratch, Heaven only knows how many app builders and software engineers would have jumped at the chance to work for him on a project like this. I hope he has learned his lesson and can be humble enough to admit to himself even if he wants to save face with the public.
And just because an artist is huge in the USA that doesn’t make them known worldwide. There’s a DJ whose name I rather omit who is labeled “DJ, Producer, Worldwide Superstar”, I thought it was a movie character or something when I saw the ad, but well, it turns out he’s rich and famous in many countries, yet I had never heard of him.
Same goes from singers from other places, like India; some have millions of views on YT and MTV specials but I had no idea they even existed.
I suspect the same happens with Jay Z, unlike YT or Spotify, his project is probably useless to most of the world.
Tidal is SUCH a Flop ass situation, is embarrassing that even their ” Exclusives” are ripped and uploaded everywhere in Minutes, now there is talk that Sony might actually Pull Beysus Catalog!!! from Her Own Streaming Service?!?!?!?
And what about the users? Sure Tidal wants to revolutionize the music industry, but who pays for a CD when it’s released? Who spends four minutes on Youtube watching a video? Who buys concert tickets? The Users, the people, the public. Jay-Z never made Tidal about them.
Perfectly put. The whole Tidal business model doesn’t take consumer needs or behavior into consideration at all.
Nope. It was purely a selfish enterprise. It started and is run from the artist perspective, unfortunatly Jay has so many yes men nobody told him nobody is going to buy his service for more $ just because, essentially, he wants them to. That was his whole argument and it backfired hard.
Nope, he didn’t. It was all about how the poor artists were getting ripped off. Meanwhile, these are people who have multiple millions.
That’s an excellent observation, and probably partly why so many reacted negatively towards that big extravaganza they did. I bet you’re right, if they’d made it more about the listeners, the customers, and providing them with a great service, it may have been received much differently.
This is one hundred percent a rich people problem, and I can’t even! Tidal suck to me because it’s not original, and some of the interviews Jay z did made it about the artist rights and not the fans who made you rich! Plus in a family of five with one income and being a mom of three full time student I can think of better ways to spend my money ! Ijs
I’m not a Jay-Z fan but isn’t it premature declaring Tidal a disaster?
Good. Sorry, that might be mean but these twits need their wrists slapped for the pretentious crap they dished out to fans with this.
I hope this isn’t the part where I’m supposed to feel sympathy for a multi multi millionaire who lost a few mil by making a poor business decision.
+1
He’s trying to turn back the clock.
I have every sympathy with musicians being unable to make money (more sympathy with the smaller ones, but even so…) by selling copies of their music. Really. Every sympathy. But the cat of free music is now out of the bag and it will never go back in.
The next person to make gazillions out of music will be the person who identifies a way of monetising it that DOESN’T involve paying to simply listen to it. I don’t know what that way is, but there will be one. Some clever little person will have a stroke of genius, and think of something users are prepared to pay for. Users will love it and they will pay.
Until that idea happens, musicians will be better off concentrating on touring, festivals, sponsorships and all their other revenue streams, while continuing to create music that’s ready to go when the new idea takes off.
Many artists tried to stop changes from happening. Same as technology is evolving, so are other things, like books, newspapers or radio stations.
So yes, I agree with you.
Agree 100%.
The internets went through this same growing pain; ask any failed .com about their profit model and revenue stream. What I wonder is if your clever little music person will think of a new content delivery system – innovative hardware OR software? – that can somehow keep advertising (as an unrelated product itself) or subscription out of the loop.
(On a semi-rated note: I’ve a hunch the day U2’s free but vastly unwanted new album was Apple-pre-loaded – and then ridiculed – may prove a turning point to look back upon in this sort of discussion.)
Exactly vis a vis the interwebz, Belle. I am thinking it will have something to do with binding it in with crypto currency. But I have no idea how or why or when or what. But I think crypto currencies are going to change a lot of things. And perhaps there will be new payment models for artists of all ilks within those changes.
Jay-Z should have played the long game and spent his $56m investing in facilitating grassroots technological innovations and paying people to monitor new spending patterns in arts consumption. Whatever this change ends up being, I think it will be bottom up, not top down.
A bra is not a top, Bey.
My heart danced a little when I read the headline. I actually surprised myself and not in a good way. But I know it’s because I loathe an inflated ego and a sense of unearned entitlement. Both qualities get under my skin and Jay and Bey project each in abundance.
I do, however, feel for all the newly employed. What happens to them? And to all the businessmen that will suffer from this loss? Ugh. Even in failure, these two are fascinating to watch.
I’m sorry but I love that yellow suit!!! Would definitely rock that!!! I need to find 1 like it!!!
I don’t know, I understood the initial judging and commenting about TIDAL because that really was a mess, but now it does kind of feel like kicking someone for daring to try.
I also kind of wonder if Jay Z was on the right side of the board room, wore a suit all the time, and was friends with the right people whether there’d be all this gleeful desperation to declare this an amazing life changing failure. Is this service even 6 months old yet?
I realize he set himself up by being so public with its initial introduction but you’ve got people hanging on the edge of their seat to declare it a wash when most companies don’t turn a profit for years. Twitter still isn’t making money and there aren’t a million articles about it every week.
I don’t think it’s even about Jay-Z himself as much as it is about ALL of the famous people involved. The roll-out and promo for the service seemed remarkably tone deaf–like a bunch of super rich, entitled celebrities trying to get more money, all while being incredibly preachy about it.
The issue is that it was a high profile and immediate flop. I think that had the roll-out not been completely bungled there might not be the same kind of glee, but it was a pretty incredible misread of the market. Tidal was supposed to revolutionize streaming, yet it’s only real selling point to the consumer (at a rate that is more expensive than comparable services) was “lossless audio”. Jay Z as a businessman is like the Emperor and his new clothes.
Agreed with both of you ladies that TIDAL came out guns blazing when it should have rolled out quietly and tried to have success on its side before that big ridiculous show.
I also agree that it doesn’t seem to be in the consumer’s best interests and it does show a misunderstanding of what role music and streaming can play with competition being what it is.
Still though, it is such a new company that weekly updates on how it’s the worst failure that ever failed seem redundant. Amazon JUST started making a profit after years of being in the industry and that’s really the norm. Very few businesses are ever bought or created that knock it out of the park immediately. Even the almighty Google has shuttered its profile service because despite its best efforts it wasn’t succeeding – and that was after years and the force integration with YouTube.
I really think it’s just the public profile. if you make a huge proclamation that you’re going to change music, you better come through!
Isn’t it a little too soon to be planning the financial funeral? I think it’s normal to have a long period of tweaking and finding your market. If they have something distinctive to offer and enough people want it, they may do well enough. People already happy with other services are loud in their complaints, but those just aren’t the market for this service. Time will tell if there is a market for it. The big complaint seems to be the pricing structure, which their true market probably wouldn’t be so concerned about (I suspect they’re aiming at people with loads of extra cash in their pockets – and they do exist).
Thank you for this article. I could not understand all the talk of Tidal for the life of me.
Am I the only one who read this and thought – there’s a season 2 storyline for Empire?
Ps – love the yellow suit. If it had a blouse instead of a yellow bra, it’s look awesome
After a very rough start, they predicted the demise of Oprah’s OWN network also. It’s going strong.
Seriously.
If TIDAL actually shuts all the doors and turns off all the lights then sure throw a party, but let the obsession with watching it fail relax till it’s even a year old.
Oprah was smart though and listened to audience criticism and changed course when what she was doing wasn’t working. She listened, she looked around to see what was lacking and what she could offer with OWN that wasn’t being offered elsewhere or not in significant numbers and started doing that. And it worked. Oprah’s always been about knowing the pulse of the public and catering to that pulse.
The Tidal crew seem to believe that if they keep ramming a square peg into a round hole long enough, they’ll get their way. They don’t acknowledge what critics of their business model are telling them and what prospective consumers/customers are telling them is problematic with their service. Ignoring what your customer base is telling you is wrong with your product or service is a really bad way of doing business.
The group of artists behind Tidal (not just Jay Z) seem set on doing this a very certain way, their way or no way, and there will be no telling them that what they’re doing may very well be wrong and they need to change course to save what they’re trying to do. It won’t be the public, Spotify/iTunes, or even necessarily their own product that will be their downfall, it will be their egos that will do them in.
I think a lot of the negativity is due to Jay Z’s attitude. Especially the in-your-face boasting about his business acumen and his ability to sell “fire in hell.” He thinks and says people are stupid and will buy anything he’s selling, including his music that he merely puts out for publicity. It’s not about quality. His “relationship” with Beyonce is just for publicity. He calls himself J Hova, names a song Magna,Carta. What a pompous POS.
Sean Carter looks best when he has egg on his face.
Serious eyeroll for all of the people so happy that Jay-Z is “failing”. Tidal just came out. It’s ridiculous to expect it to be a huge success now. As previously mentioned, some of the biggest websites(Amazon, Twitter, etc) started slowly and just started making a profit. People need to calm down. It could be a whole different story in six months.
You mean the business model to sign up artists to exclusives and then extort double the money from customers if they want to hear that music didn’t work?