Mock Market Research

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A Market Analysis for
(TIDAL)
(Shantell Brooks)
Full Sail University
Project & Portfolio II: Business and Marketing

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(May 28, 2022)

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This is a high level snapshot that allows your client to become familiar with the major
points of your report before reading it through. It quickly summarizes the most important assertions
you’ve made in Objectives, Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations. Your audience should
be able to use it to decide if this is the right report to read further. Think of the abstract you'll see
when you locate an article in the Full Sail library database. That’s what it should look like. You’ll
come back to write this part after your paper is complete.

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OBJECTIVE
TIDAL launched its streaming service in a red ocean market in an attempt to compete with
the likes of Apple Music and Spotify. Its purpose is to be hyper-focused on artists and uniting them
with their fans. Currently, TIDAL’s growth is stagnant. My objective is to rethink the subscription
plans and to create a way to bring new subscribers and increase the active usage rate. In order to
do this, the client needs a new marketing strategy and to eliminate one of the paid subscription
plans.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
I found my information externally across the internet. I gathered information from 2016 to
2021. The information across the internet was scarce and opinionated. It was difficult to find fact-
based information. Most of my research is qualitative. Up to date user data is missing and has not
been updated publicly in over 5 years.
RESEARCH AND KEY FINDINGS
TIDAL is a Norwegian-American company that was launched in 2014 by Aspiro, a Norwegian
technology company. It is a subscription-based service that offers all streaming services such as

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podcasting, music, and videos. The service offers high fidelity sound quality. Being an artist-
owned streaming platform, TIDAL’s purpose is to focus on its artists and audiophiles. In 2021,
Block, Inc. acquired the majority stake in TIDAL, making them the owners of the platform.
TIDAL’s current CEO is a former music executive, Richard Sanders.
Currently, TIDAL has 3 million subscribers and it hasn’t grown since 2016. While it is said to be
one of the popular streaming services, they have hundreds of million less subscribers than
competitors like Spotify and Apple Music. There are 3 subscriptions tiers that TIDAL offers; Free,
HiFi($9.99), and HiFi Plus($19.99). The premium subscriptions also offer family, student, and
military plans.
The HiFi Plus plan’s target market is marketed towards audiophiles and music connoisseurs with
a heavy usage rate. Together, streaming services have 487 million subscribers globally. In 2020,
streaming services earned 13.4 billion dollars — more than half of the entire music industry’s
revenue. TIDAL operates in 61 countries and according to MIDIA’s report, TIDAL owns 2% of
the global market share. The HiFi Plus plan’s target market is marketed towards audiophiles and
music connoisseurs with a heavy usage rate. They users are men and women between the ages of
18 to 44 years of age. This plan is the highest tier subscription plan that TIDAL offers. Their
competitors are Spotify(406M users), Apple Music(60M users), and Qobuz(200K users). TIDALs
offers exclusivity and being that it is artist-owned, the artists can earn more of their royalties and
offer fan-centered feature. TIDAL has a feeble leadership and bad representation. The platform
has had 4 CEOs in its time. Also, there are a lot of rumors citing that TIDAL has inflated streams
for artists and doesn't pay-out royalties to recording labels who distribute on their platform. A

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trend that is happening right now is NFTs and a lot of artists are selling their music as NFTS. Being
that TIDAL is artist-owned and seeks to cater to the artists on their platform, they have an open
opportunity to explore the option and create more revenue for their business and the artists who
distribute their music on the platform.

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CONCLUSIONS
TIDAL entered a red ocean market. The company attempted to differentiate themselves
but the differences weren’t significant enough for them to leave the competition. They said that
the platform is hyperfocused on being a tool for artists who distribute on their platform. However,
in recent years, artists like Kanye West, who is one of the co-owners of the platform, have spoken
out about the platform cheating artists out of royalty payments. There has also been speculation
that TIDAL inflates streams for the more successful artists at the expense of other artists on the
platform. So, even though TIDAL claims to be “for artists by artists”, these claims have put a dent
in their image and integrity. Public relations have not helped the brand overcome the ordeal. With
only 3M subscribers, TIDAL can not compete. Artists will seek to depend on other streaming
services because the more subscribers, the more streams they will get. TIDAL currently holds less
global market share than their competitors. In the current state, TIDAL can not survive.
RECOMMENDATIONS

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Now that Block Inc has acquired TIDAL, there are some opptotunities on the table to
increase the growth of the streaming service. Some of the opportunities include adding more perks
for fans who use the application to stream their favorite artists, exploring payouts for artists in
other currencies such as cryptocurrency, and creating more tools to help artists on the platform. To
help TIDAL’s stagnant growth, my strategic recommendation is that they integrate a tip feature
for artists and for users who are playlist curators, integrate a social updating feature for artists and
fans to engage, and build a pay-out system for fan-curated playlist creators. These changes should
be made over the course of a year (May 2023). Another analysis should be made 1 year after the
changes have been made (May 2024).

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REFERENCES
Curry, D. (2022, March 4). Music Streaming App Revenue and Usage Statistics (2022). Business
of Apps.
https://www.businessofapps.com/data/music-streaming-market/
Titlow, J.P.(2017, August 8). Can Tidal’s fourth CEO in two years help it stay afloat?. Fast
Company.
https://www.fastcompany.com/40450472/can-fourth-ceo-in-2-years-help-streaming-service-
tidal-stay-afloat
TIDAL. (n.d). Where We Are Available. TIDAL.
https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/202453191-TIDAL-Where-We-re-Available
Patterson, B. (2021, March 4). Square-Tidal Deal is a Head-scratcher, But Likely Good News
For Tidal Fans. TechHive.
https://www.techhive.com/article/579247/square-tidal-deal-is-a-head-scratcher-but-likely-good-
news-for-tidal-fans.html
APPENDICES
Images:
Silberling, A. (2022, January, 20). Spotify still tops other music services, but its market share
declined. TechCrunch.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/20/spotify-subscription-numbers-up-youtube-music-tidal/
Curry, D. (2022, March 4). Music Streaming App Revenue and Usage Statistics (2022). Business
of Apps.
https://www.businessofapps.com/data/music-streaming-market/