It seems Tidal has not made the big waves it was hoping for. One month after its launch, the streaming service has already dropped out of the iPhone top 700 download chart in the US.
The news will be an embarrassment for the service, which launched in March amid a blaze of publicity. Fronted by Jay Z, it was backed by a series of A-list musicians including Madonna, Chris Martin and Beyonce.
However, the app has suffered from mixed messages following its launch. Despite claiming to pay artists better royalties than existing services, the abundance of pop megastars used to promote it prompted confusion as to why they deserved even more cash.
Tidal has suffered from a turbulent launch in other ways. The company’s CEO was removed last week, in what was described as a “streamlining” move. Tidal has since drafted in former consultant for the Norwegian Ministry of Environment, Peter Tonstad, for the role.
In other streaming news, rival services Pandora and Spotify seem to be surging ahead, respectively occupying the No. 3 and No. 4 spot on the US iPhone revenue chart. Commentators have noticed how Spotify seems to have been boosted by the Tidal media campaign, despite being one of its key targets. Meanwhile, Kanye West, another Tidal backer, has reassured people that the service is not part of the shadowy world-governing organisation known as the Illuminati. Which certainly clears things up.
