Jay Z’s Tidal service boasts a 3 million subscriber base a year after launch

Tidal, the streaming service led by Jay Z that launched a year ago, said Tuesday it has climbed up to 3 million subscribers.

Tidal, which last revealed its subscription base at 1 million in September, said in a statement marking its one-year anniversary that it now has 3 million members in 46 countries.

Aimed at taking a slice of the booming market for streaming, which offers unlimited, on-demand music, Tidal has sought to differentiate itself from rivals led by Spotify by offering exclusives, higher-quality audio files and video content.

Among its successes, Tidal exclusively released the latest album by rap superstar Kanye West and has become the primary online home for Prince, who has delighted in the newfound artistic control.

But Tidal was widely derided for the optics of the March 30, 2015 press conference that announced the relaunch of the service, which Jay Z bought for US$56 million from Swedish-listed company Aspiro.

Tidal vowed to change streaming to benefit artists, although the press conference was led by some of the richest names in music such as Madonna, West and Jay Z’s wife Beyonce.

Whatever the public relations struggle, Tidal insisted it has made good on its promises and that it has featured 1,000 tracks by unsigned artists.

Tidal offers music on more advanced Flac files, but at US$19.99 a month in the United States, the subscription for the high-end tier is twice the cost of most streaming sites.

Source: AFP