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Talking about Tidal and streaming services. We look at what Prince said about Tidal and streaming in the press. Prince Ebony Mag Interview.
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Great show & topic. I come from a career in the radio industry (back when it was the primary means of music distribution). The decline of the music industry is a heartbreaking tale. Digital music as a means of convenience = AWESOME! But at the expense of artists, listeners and fans. In this podcast, I hear you on the side of the artist, with empathy for their desire to get paid a fair and equitable rate for their product and the right to distribute it. I’m all for that too.
Distribution is the key to the current state of the industry. Because of this, no artist should expect fair and equitable treatment from the Apple, Google, Pandora, Spotify, Tidals of the world. They are the backbone. It costs money (A LOT of $$$) to distribute digital music in the fashion listeners have become accustomed to. Do you think it costs less money to run a radio station today than it did in the 80s or 90s? More. Much more, surprisingly. The artists are to blame for this. No musical act gets into the business to not be heard by as many listeners as possible. They’ve created their own conundrum.
I think Tidal gets knocked because they were late to the game. They launched well after Apple and Google established themselves as leaders. Tidal said they were establishing a new approach, and gave the artists more control of their destiny. Pure marketing. It was a vehicle for the most popular artist of the moment = Beyonce. Her pull in the market is enormous, so the ability to get early distribution and exclusive content drove initial numbers. There are not many other artists that could do that and maintain the unique proposition Tidal was going for. It’s a failed business model in a highly competitive space. Nothing to do with race IMO. I’ll bet you most subscribers of Tidal are young, white males 😉
You nailed it. The distribution channels will now be producers of content. They’ll throw big checks at hot artists to produce content that will be exclusive to their platform. The lure of that up front money erodes the artist’s integrity. And it ties them creatively to a model that is dictated by return on investment. Artist suffers, music quality is driven by money, listeners get what THEY think we want to hear. Sad. I want my local record store back.