Market analysis

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A Market Analysis for
Tidal
Brandon McCurdy
Full Sail University
Project & Portfolio II: Business and Marketing
February 28,2024

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The purpose of this report is to analyze and execute a plan that will increase the present
and the future of Tidal and its parent company Block Inc. Block Inc other subsidiary company
(Cash app) is the driving force for the company and had increase the revenue significantly
according to CNBC. (Sigalos). This report also shows that Tidal is steadily deteriorating in
other areas by making layoffs in particular departments, but also shows improvements in
certain areas by creating cash savings to invest in the company in critical areas. (Spangler).
This report also demonstrates diverse ways the company can be profitable in the future by
targeting more demographics, expanding across more countries, and a new market
strategy.

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OBJECTIVE
This report was created to orchestrate a plan on how to increase Tidal revenue, build a
marketing strategy that will entice new subscribers, and take inventory of why other competitors
are outperforming Tidal.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This report was generated by using internal and external resources within the company
and its competitors. Using different databases, news articles, and different statistics that show
revenue, the number of subscribers of each streaming services have, and where Tidal ranks
amongst them. General information was also collected from different blogs.
RESEARCH AND KEY FINDINGS
Tidal name was adopted in 2014, which change from the original name WiMP. WiMP
specialized in High-quality audio and was the first streaming platform to do that. (Rogès). This
new segment of Audiophile was so successful that it quickly expanded in the European
market due to the successful launch of WiMP. With the success of WiMP taking notice in the
world, they adopted the name Tidal to make it easier for the English speakers to pronounce
it. Despite all the promises that the company made, it had its share of problems that cost
them to sell it to Jay-Z for $56million. This was huge news especially being the first Artist to
own a streaming service and having 16 of shareholders (who mostly is artist themselves)
to invest with him. When Jay-Z took over Tidal, they had 500,000 subscribers already, but
this number grew immensely. (“TIDAL”) In the diagram below, it gives you overview how

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Tidal starts to climb under its new ownership; even while being outperformed by its
competitors.
The reason Tidal subscriptions were so low is because it was made mostly for artists
and not customer oriented. Even with that being the case, that did not stop Tidal from
earning $166 million over a 4-year span. (HeadphonesAddict).

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165million of that came from new subscribers and another million came from
sponsorship. 2016 Tidal had gained 3 million users worldwide. One of the things that had
caused Tidal to be in the lower 10% range of its competitors was its marketing strategy. In
the Diagram below, it shows how Spotify and Apple subscribers’ growth had accelerated by
its discount offers. (“TIDAL”)
In 2016, Tidal premium price was $110 for new subscribers. Even with Tidal giving a free trial
to new users, it was not enough to convert most potential buyers to subscribe. (“TIDAL”). Tidal
competitor (Spotify) took advantage of this opportunity and gave a free trial also. Not only
did they give free trials, but the premium price average ($3.09) was affordable for new

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subscribers. (“TIDAL”)
This cost Tidal to make changes to their premium plans which lower the pricing between
$10-$16 dollars monthly. With many changes taking places in Tidal, in 2020 Tidal was 9th
most searched streaming services worldwide and the 2nd most downloaded app in Poland
for the year off 2022. (HeadphonesAddict). Despite Tidal being ranked so low in the
streaming world, it still the second highest platform that pays artist the highest percentage
of their royalties’ underneath Napster. While Tidal was on the wave of climbing the ladder,
Tidal once again changed ownership. Jack Dorsey (who is the owner of Block Inc)
purchased Tidal for 297 million. (Bursztynsky). Not only was this purchase expensive, but
it came with legal trouble from stakeholders who were not pleased with Tidal been sold
that cost Tidal 56 million in legal fees. Since Tidal has been under new ownership, it has
started to dwindle. In 2021 in the Q3 has fallen to 58M and in the Q3 to 56M in 2022.

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(Dredge). While heading into the Q3 in 2023, Tidal contribute 50M in revenue for Block Inc.
(“Block’s (SQ) Q3 Earnings & Revenues yahoo’). Tidal made a lot of changes that could help
the company significantly. Some of the changes includes:
 Tidal has 59 home Audio partners in 2022.
 Tidal HiFi Plus plan ensures that 10% of subscription goes direct to the user most
listen artist.
 Tidal members can browse through the TIDAL Rising program.
These are some of the steps that Tidal implemented to increase their revenue and
subscription growth. (HeadphonesAddict) Tidal war in the streaming service is an uphill
battle (Miller). (diagram below)
Tidal most user is between the ages of 25-34 which is 30.94%; with most of the user being
36.93% females and 63.07% being male. This the second highest user rate with 21.24% of
ages of 18-24 with the 3rd highest being 20.64% between age of 35-34. (Similarweb)

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Tidal will need to orchestrate away that will attract the older population to gain more
subscribers and capitalize off it. While Tidal is the most popular in the US, it is not as
popular in other parts of the country and that is part of the reason it is not thriving as it is
supposed to.
With the US leading the way at 28.53% visit per month; it drops tremendously with Poland

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being the 2nd highest at 7.64%. As stated earlier in the post, Tidal will need to work on their
worldwide expansion in other countries and build up the usage rate in every age category.
Tidal is not a major concern for Block Inc, because of the many subsidiary companies they
own. Block Inc biggest revenue comes from Cash App which is accounted for 4.4 billion of
the overall GPV. Tidal will continue to shrivel up slowly if the market strategy does not
change, and if more time is not invested. While doing research, it was announced that Tidal
will do a layoff that will help the company save cash and use that to invest back into the
company. It was reported that “Square is paying [what was then reported] $300 million
for a failed music service that doesn’t help it accomplish any of those goals.” (Rys). This
could be another factor into why Tidal is taking such a monetary loss. This new plot that is
being created could help the company in every aspect and could be very profitable. With
Tidal utilizing the social media world and introducing new tools that will help artists
become economic empowerment; this ideal will increase it mark in the streaming world
exceptionally. Even though this layoff going to affect many people; it will be necessary for
company future in the streaming world.
CONCLUSIONS
Tidal parent company Block Inc is taking the necessary steps to make the company
better, but the wait will cost the company millions. Living off the popularity that Tidal gained
under the ownership of Jay-Z was not enough to keep the financial revenue profitable as it
started to dwindle under its new ownership. Block Inc new structure plan will not only increase
in revenue and entice new subscribers, but it helps the artists in multiply ways by gaining new
tool for economic empowerment. Learning to step outside the box was not only a great move for

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Tidal, but it will help Tidal cement its future in the streaming world and make it once again a
competitor amongst its rivalries.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the research that was generated, Tidal problems was simple and perplex at the
same time. Tidal was more focused on catering to artists than it was to their customers. Tidal
new structure plan will increase revenue, attract new subscribers, and make a positive impact in
the music industry for artists. Tidal deciding to utilize social media also was tremendous help in
expanding their brand and gaining popularity around the world. I recommend that Tidal keep
investing their time in studying other platforms that dominate them, add more promotional plans
that fit every age group, and provide personal experience for the users. I also recommend a
weekly report that shows usage, new user ratio, global rank, and monthly statistics that show an
overview of how the company is performing. Overall, Block Inc will need to eliminate all red
flags and be more involved in the company and its investment from now on.
REFERENCES
“Block’s (SQ) Q3 Earnings & Revenues Beat Estimates, up Y/Y.” Yahoo Finance, 3 Nov. 2023,
finance.yahoo.com/news/blocks-sq-q3-earnings-revenues-181500311.html.

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Bursztynsky, Jessica. “Dorsey’s Square Is Acquiring a Majority Stake in Jay-Z’s Streaming
Music Company Tidal.” CNBC, 4 Mar. 2021, www.cnbc.com/2021/03/04/square-
acquiring-a-majority-stake-in-jay-zs-tidal.html. Accessed 29 Feb. 2024.
Coray, Tony. “How TIDAL Uses Identity Marketing to Build Customer Loyalty.” SheerID, 2
Nov. 2021, www.sheerid.com/business/blog/how-tidal-uses-identity-marketing-to-build-
customer-loyalty/.
Dredge, Stuart. “Tidal’s Parent Company Block Publishes Latest Financial Results.” Music Ally,
3 Nov. 2023, musically.com/2023/11/03/tidals-parent-company-block-publishes-latest-
financial-results/. Accessed 29 Feb. 2024.
HeadphonesAddict. 22+ TIDAL Music Statistics (2022). 9 May 2022,
headphonesaddict.com/tidal-music-statistics/.
Miller, Chelsi. “Analysis of Streaming Platform: TIDAL.” Medium, 20 Oct. 2022,
medium.com/@cmiller002/analysis-of-streaming-platform-tidal-5c79b318567e.
Rogès, Nicolas. “The History of TIDAL.” Soundiiz Blog, 7 Sept. 2023, soundiiz.com/blog/the-
history-of-tidal/.
Rys, Dan. “TIDAL Plots a New Course — Will It Pay Off?” Billboard, 8 Dec. 2023,
www.billboard.com/business/streaming/tidal-streaming-service-block-financial-services-
1235544785/.
Sigalos, MacKenzie. “Block Shares Surge 16% after Company Announces Surprise
Profit.” CNBC, 22 Feb. 2024, www.cnbc.com/2024/02/22/block-sq-earnings-q4-
2023.html. Accessed 28 Feb. 2024.
Similarweb. “Similarweb.com - Digital World Market Intelligence Platform.” SimilarWeb.com,
Mar. 2023, www.similarweb.com.
Spangler, Todd. “Music Streaming Service Tidal Lays off More than 10% of Staff.” Variety, 6
Dec. 2023, variety.com/2023/digital/news/tidal-layoffs-10-percent-employees-
1235825119/. Accessed 28 Feb. 2024.

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“TIDAL.” Music Industry Blog, 7 Dec. 2022,
musicindustryblog.wordpress.com/category/tidal/#:~:text=Subscribers%3A%20There%2
0were%20616.2%20million.
“Block Revenue (Quarterly).” Ycharts.com, ycharts.com/companies/SQ/revenues. Accessed 29
Feb. 2024.
APPENDICES