Nobody wants to buy music anymore. That's why the streaming music scene is such a big battlefield right now.
What does a streaming music service have to do to stick out? The same thing that Netflix, HBO, Hulu and Amazon do in video realm: focus on producing must-have content that you can't get anywhere else. Apple Music and Tidal are trying similar approaches, exclusively releasing records by some of the most popular musicians in the business.
Somehow Tidal, the Jay Z-owned underdog with 3 million subscribers, has done a far better job at manufacturing a spectacle around the latest records from its coup of superstar co-owners, but it hasn't exactly come out a winner.
After accidentally leaking it the night before its release, Tidal stated it would be the only place to stream and download Rihanna's new album, "Anti," but it was made available on Apple Music the next day and Spotify weeks later. Similarly, Beyonce's magnum opus, "Lemonade," was supposed to be exclusively on Tidal after it premiered on HBO, but it was made available on Apple Music, Amazon and Pandora days after its release, too.
In probably the strangest album roll out of his career, Kanye West debuted his highly-anticipated, often renamed project, "The Life of Pablo," in a Tidal livestream (also shown in theaters worldwide) that doubled as a New York Fashion Week show for West's clothing line.
After the premier, West, like he often does, took to Twitter and said that the album would only be available to stream on Tidal and "never" on Apple Music. A not-quite-finished-yet version was exclusively on Tidal for about a month, while Kanye tweaked individual tracks to his liking. Meanwhile, it quickly became one of the most pirated records in recent history. And now, you can find the finished product on Apple Music and Spotify.
The ploys have successfully reeled in new customers, but Tidal's lackadaisical approach to the definition of exclusive looks embarrassingly weak in comparison to Apple. Good luck trying to findTaylor Swift, Drake or Adele's latest albums on Spotify. You won't. All were deemed Apple Music exclusives before launch and so far, an Apple Music exclusive means exactly that -- you can only stream it on Apple Music. (You can buy the tracks and albums on Amazon, but they're not included in Amazon's all-you-can-stream Prime Music service.)
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