After 1 year, Tidal reaches 3M paid subscribers, well behind Apple Music's 11M

Subscription music streaming service Tidal announced Tuesday that it has 3 million paid subscribers who signed on in its first year of availability, a number that lags behind the likes of Apple Music and Spotify.

Apple Music, meanwhile, reached the 12 million member mark in January, just six months after it debuted. It took just a month for Apple to add another million, announcing it had reached the 11 million mark in February.

Spotify, meanwhile, said it had nearly 30 million subscribers as of February. While different tiers and plans are available, all three generally offer the same $10-per-month basic plans for unlimited streaming.

In announcing its subscriber count on Tuesday, Tidal boasted of its exclusive content debuts, including "Formation" by Beyonce, "The Life of Pablo" by Kanye West and "ANTI" by Rihanna. The service also includes exclusive video content, such as West's "Yeezy Season 3" fashion show, which was viewed by more than 23 million people.

While Tidal lags behind Apple Music and Spotify, Tuesday's announcement does suggest that subscriber growth is at least accelerating — the service held a Jay-Z concert last October to celebrate its one-millionth paid subscriber.

Though it originally launched in October 2014, Tidal was later bought by Jay-Z and relaunched in March 2015, with part of its new mission statement being that the service would be artist-friendly and pay higher royalties than its competitors.

In a standout from its competitors, Tidal offers a unique $20 tier with lossless audio. Another distinguishing aspect is that the service pays higher royalties than its competitors, making it more artist-friendly.

34 Comments

scxfan 8 Years · 8 comments

About 8 years ago

I am surprised it has 3 million users frankly.

cali 10 Years · 3494 comments

Is there any data suggesting tidal pays higher royalties than Apple Music?

sirlance99 11 Years · 1301 comments

sog35 said:

3 million users?

Don't believe it at all. And really there is nothing stopping them from lying since they are not a publicly traded company.

How do we know Apple isn't lying? Where is the proof that they have 11m subs besides Apple's word? It's OK to have competition in every sector and it's not always about Apple has to win at everything.

chasm 10 Years · 3624 comments

cali said:

Is there any data suggesting tidal pays higher royalties than Apple Music?

Previous report have suggested that Tidal pays *slightly* better than Apple Music, which in turn pays better than any other streaming service. We're talking pennies per million plays difference between Tidal and Apple Music, but it is slightly higher. Actually buying music from the Apple Store pays better than any streaming service by a country mile, however. So if you hear an artist you really like, add it to your permanent collection by buying it. You'll thank me for this advice when the day comes that you cut the subscription, either to save money or because of lost interest or whatever. The great songs you heard and bought will still be yours to enjoy.

guelahpapyrus69 21 Years · 17 comments

sirlance99 said:

sog35 said:

3 million users?

Don't believe it at all. And really there is nothing stopping them from lying since they are not a publicly traded company.

How do we know Apple isn't lying? Where is the proof that they have 11m subs besides Apple's word? It's OK to have competition in every sector and it's not always about Apple has to win at everything.

As a publicly traded company I think they would run into SEC issues were they to lie about statistics in regards to revenue generated by their products. Obviously they don't have to report numbers in detail about a product, but once they go public with a number I'd think it would have to be verifiable.

i find it interesting that the reported number is "3 million signed on" and not just "3 million paid users". This leaves open the door for a hypothetical "x amount cancelled" while still being truthful about the number of signups.