Tidal may have failed to bring Spotify down, but can Apple’s Beats take on the world’s favorite streaming app?
It wasn’t too long ago when some of the biggest names in the music industry rallied behind Jay-Z’s Tidal in a failed attempt to kill Spotify. Now here comes Apple trying to do the exact same thing Tidal did— convince music artists to side with them through exclusive deals for Beats.
It can be recalled that despite having the music industry’s biggest names by its side, Tidal was unsuccessful in winning over many music fans who remained loyal to Spotify.
Spotify’s enemies are trying to bank on the fact that many music acts are not in good terms with the world’s most popular streaming music app. Some artists, including Taylor Swift, have accused Spotify of not compensating them enough for the use of their musical pieces. Although Spotify tried to clear its name by saying that 70% of their earnings already go straight to the music companies behind the artists— it later on became clear that to a certain number of the musical artists, it just wasn’t enough.
So they went up in arms against Spotify by rallying behind Tidal.
But it didn’t make the music fans happy.
Now here comes Apple’s Beats, trying to do the exact same thing. Beats has reportedly attempted to woo popular musical artists like Taylor Swift, in a bid to get them to agree on an exclusive Beats deal.
Beats is about to relaunched in the coming months, and users can expect an intricately revamped streaming music app, as well as a price tag to go with it. But unlike Tidal, Beats offers the use of the app at a much lower rate— a monthly subscription of $9.99, or a family plan for a monthly fee of $14.99.
Both Tidal and Beats don’t offer free service for avid music fans— only Spotify does, which places ads on the app in return.
Beats streaming app was acquired by Apple in May of last year. The acquisition was supposedly made in an effort by the company to keep up with the booming music streaming industry.
Tidal was also just recently acquired and revamped by Jay-Z. It is co-owned by some of the music industry’s biggest names including Beyonce, Madonna, and Rihanna.
Many saw the music artists’ move to rally behind Tidal made out of sheer greed, seeing that despite their unapologetically lavish lifestyles they still saw themselves fit to complain that they weren’t getting enough from the music streaming industry.
Look what Taylor Swift started..
It’s interesting how Apple is still going into this venture despite the failure of Tidal. I don’t think winning over Taylor Swift is going to be nearly enough for Beats to take away Spotify’s customers.
Besides possibly Taylor Swift what else does Beats have to offer that Spotify doesn’t? Well without it’s release it’s hard to tell but I can say that Spotify is a great service which has a huge library – I’ve hardly come across any songs I wanted to listen too that Spotify didn’t offer. It’ll take a lot more for existing Spotify customers to switch but I suppose there will be people who still haven’t gotten into music streaming which might find Beats a good alternative. Still I think Spotify has the edge, especially with the free service it offers.
The reality is, the market that spotify inhabits right now is pretty much a monopoly. It makes sense that a company like Beats who has the funds want a piece of the market share. They have the pull, the brand name(which frankly I am impressed with because people still buy their awful headphones despite the price- they’re like the second coming of Apple), and the means to breakout on the market.
Why are they still trying? You saw it dead, don’t try to revive it, Apple! The sad part of all this is that people will still buy it. Why? Apple brand on it, that’s why! On another thought, I don’t think this will harm Spotify in any way, shape or form.