zaphod Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 Square bought Tidal for $297M: https://squareup.com/us/en/press/tidal Wonder if it will affect the business at all? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAV Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 Jay-Z did well, paid $57M. Times reports he sold a third of Tidal to Sprint (now T-Mobile) in 2017 and bought back those shares just recently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyknight Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 Weird company to take over Tidal..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wnpublic Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 It's a tarnished asset. 1/3 of it cost $200M in 2017 - now the whole thing is sub-$300M. Nice service, but tough market. JR2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted March 5, 2021 Author Share Posted March 5, 2021 Tough market as your competitors are Spotify, a category killer, plus Apple, Amazon and Google. And then a few other niche services. That's some heavyweight competition, including three of the biggest companies on the planet. Some of the comments from Jack Dorsey are about how this allows them to help artists make more money by buying merch, etc through Tidal. That makes me worried for Tidal in C4 as things like that make you think that they will pull back the API and limit what can be down in third party UIs. And we have seen this before with services like Sonos, Twitter, etc. This is what worries me. If this is really what you want to do then you want everyone in your app, not a third party UI where you cannot do these things. But maybe this is all BS and jack did this deal to be the music industry equivalent of a jock sniffer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR2 Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 14 hours ago, zaphod said: This is what worries me. If this is really what you want to do then you want everyone in your app, not a third party UI where you cannot do these things. I'm quite sure that you are correct about this one. It's all about eyeballs and revenue. 14 hours ago, zaphod said: Tough market as your competitors are Spotify, a category killer, plus Apple, Amazon and Google. And then a few other niche services. That's some heavyweight competition, including three of the biggest companies on the planet. Correct, Twitter/Square/Jack have been shopping for a music service for quite a few years. Soundcloud, reportedly once an acquisition target for Twitter and later Spotify, the company never quite converted those talks into deals, in part because of the asking price and the overhang of licensing issues and related business models. Sirius XM/Pandora pumped $75 Mil into Soundcloud last year in order to get into the international ad market. Tidal, Soundcloud, and other fringe music services are endless investor money pits. I've tried Tidal. The content never appealed to me and it subscription cost is high IMO. Maybe I just never figured out how to find content, but, my friends that have similar music taste love it. Soundcloud is free and is the YouTube of music so I cannot complain. 14 hours ago, zaphod said: Some of the comments from Jack Dorsey are about how this allows them to help artists make more money by buying merch, etc through Tidal. That makes me worried for Tidal in C4 as things like that make you think that they will pull back the API and limit what can be down in third party UIs I agree. And Square will be the only payment processor performing the financial transaction. I'm quite sure that they will make it real easy for the artist coupled with steep processing fees. The giants in this industry have figured it out and all of them have carved out their niche. IMO the services that have been hanging on in the fringes will probably end up with a similar demise as Myspace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Topspin14m Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 Tidal is actually cheap in the US with a Best Buy-managed subscription (it can be up to 50% off-I pay less than I would for Spotify). I agree this has alarm bells all over it for C4 users-though I think they’ll be incentivized to keep it working due to the fact that they need to keep their base customers (those who can actually use the HiFi audio) happy. It’s Tidal’s only differentiating factor, though it is rapidly eroding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted March 7, 2021 Author Share Posted March 7, 2021 19 hours ago, Topspin14m said: Tidal is actually cheap in the US with a Best Buy-managed subscription (it can be up to 50% off-I pay less than I would for Spotify). I agree this has alarm bells all over it for C4 users-though I think they’ll be incentivized to keep it working due to the fact that they need to keep their base customers (those who can actually use the HiFi audio) happy. It’s Tidal’s only differentiating factor, though it is rapidly eroding. But there is a HiFi option in Amazon that is cheaper than the Tidal basic price, and Spotify is coming out with a HiFi option this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C4 User Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 I sure hope they do not take away the C4 integration. I learned about Tidal on this forum and subscribed only because of the C4 integration. We now have a number of playlist with favorites to our home screens and love it. If this feature gets removed, will likely go back to Amazon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakelay Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 2 hours ago, zaphod said: But there is a HiFi option in Amazon that is cheaper than the Tidal basic price, and Spotify is coming out with a HiFi option this year. I recently picked up a car and paid for an updated audio system and really felt like Apple Music’s compression left the sound super flat. Been pretty happy with the Amazon HD service. The CarPlay integration leaves a little to be desired and I’m trying to get the hang of the C4 integration but the sound quality and music selection is pretty good so far. I think I pay 12.99/mo since I already pay for prime. just another option to consider. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Topspin14m Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 On 3/7/2021 at 4:25 PM, zaphod said: But there is a HiFi option in Amazon that is cheaper than the Tidal basic price, and Spotify is coming out with a HiFi option this year. I get Tidal Hifi for less than $9.99 a month through Best Buy ($99 a year). So you can get Tidal really cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocky350z Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 Thank you for the Best Buy tip. I have been paying 19.95/mo. Best Buy I see has it for 119./year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Topspin14m Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 On 3/10/2021 at 10:09 AM, rocky350z said: Thank you for the Best Buy tip. I have been paying 19.95/mo. Best Buy I see has it for 119./year NP! And it goes on sale for under $100 periodically. The nice thing about the BB deal is that it renews at that price too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.