Where Tidal Stands 12 Months After Its Relaunch

One year ago today, Jay Z assembled some of the world’s most famous music artists in New York to announce the relaunch of Tidal, the music streaming service he had acquired a few weeks earlier. Tidal, backed by industry heavyweights such as Madonna, Kanye West, Coldplay and Beyoncé, set out to “reestablish the value of music” and “change the course of music history”.

It wasn’t until earlier this year though that Tidal really started making waves. In late January, Rihanna premiered her new album “Anti” exclusively on Tidal - albeit to limited success (the album was mistakenly released, taken down and made available again in a matter of hours). However it was Kanye West who really gave Tidal a long-awaited boost in subscriptions. The long-time Jay Z confidant released his highly anticipated album “The Life of Pablo” exclusively on Tidal and made a point in saying that it would never be available anywhere else. West’s album undoubtedly convinced many fans to subscribe to Tidal (the album was streamed 250 million times in its first ten days), but it remains unclear how many of them stuck with the service after the free trial period expired.

In a press release issued yesterday, Tidal announced it now has three million subscribers. The below chart shows where that puts Tidal vis-à-vis the competition in this growing but highly competitive market.