Tidal Wave

Jay-Z’s Tidal has made many ripples, however the splash seems to have been short lived. The March 2015 buy of Tidal has become a troubling investment for investors at the forefront. One has to ask themselves if Tidal’s business plan makes any sense in a time when consumers see very little value in purchasing music. To expect consumers to pay $9.99 for a standard streaming service and $19.99 for a high-resolution service seems pretty crazy. What’s even more crazy is that Tidal as a company has not properly marketed it’s service to the consumer. Everyone is left in the dark, maybe they are left worrying or maybe they press on to the next service. I believe if Tidal is the biggest thing since MTV, then they should have marketed it like it was.

Tidal should have introduced a reduced rate for new customers the first year of service. After that raising the rate of the service, similar to the cable company. They should have shown the consumers the true value of the service and then raise the rates after the consumer is hooked. A great marketing campaign centered on what Tidal could offer consumers and their needs. If I were involved in Tidal’s marketing campaign, I would have run a huge campaign. I would have planned events online, on TV, and live events that show consumers the value of the Tidal’s service. Maybe Jay-Z and Tidal investors felt like ex CEO Andy Chen and his staff of 25 did not do all they could to market Tidal. Consequently, all 25 staff members and Andy Chen losing their positions at Tidal. In business first impressions are everything. I feel that it would be hard for Tidal to reemerge from such defeat. However, it’s not impossible to recover from such an unimpressive entry to the streaming market.

Tidal is not the only streaming service facing problems. Pandora has lost 2.3 million listeners within the last 3 months and it’s stock keeps dropping with less then impressive earning reports, never mind the legal woes that Pandora faces. Tidal falling off iTunes’s top 750-download list seems like nothing compared to Pandora’s problems.

Maybe the results of these two streaming services are just a reflection of the consumer’s interest in streaming services.   Consumers have so many options to choose from when it comes to new media and products that they tend to lose interest in the same old products and services. A good example of this would be the declining viewers of the show American Idol. Maybe if Tidal’s pre-marketing campaign was planned accordingly and strategically things may have panned out differently.

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