Tidal Says It Has Three Million Paying Users ⇥ billboard.com

Yours presciently on Sunday:

As far as I can tell, Tidal hasn’t reported active user statistics since the release of West’s new album; if the strategy had “paid off” to the extent that [Quartz writer Ian] Kar seems to think it has, wouldn’t they be gloating about its overwhelming success? And how many of those users will stick around after the trial period ends, and the new album lustre fades?

Dan Rys reports for Billboard today:

The one-year anniversary of Tidal’s gaudy, much-maligned launch event in New York City is tomorrow, March 30 — so naturally, the service celebrating with an announcement the day before, releasing new numbers on both subscribers and exclusive releases. In its first year, Tidal claims to have passed three million paid subscribers globally, adding about 2.5 million subs to the approximately 540,000 it had when it launched in the U.S.

Of those subscribers, 45 percent, or around 1.35 million, have signed up for its hi-fidelity, lossless audio/video tier, which costs $19.99 per month as opposed to its regular $9.99/month tier.

Adding two-and-a-half million subscribers in a year is nothing to sneeze at, but Tidal doesn’t seem like a massive success, either. For comparison, Apple Music launched in June of last year and has 11 million subscribers as of February; Spotify launched in October 2008 and has 30 million subscribers. Apple Music, of course, has the built-in app advantage, plus an interstitial ad that appears within the Music app if you’re not a subscriber.