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Business News Digital
Tidal launches streaming service for men
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 29 October 2014
High quality streaming service Tidal has gone live, banking on the assumption that men (and only men, according to a video promoting it) will pay more money for better quality audio.
As previously reported, the service – which went live in the US and UK yesterday and plans to become available in a total of 50 territories – is a spin-off from Norwegian streaming service Wimp, rebadged with a more appealing name for English speakers (male ones). It has a catalogue of over 25 million tracks, plus 75,000 videos, and editorial content. And for all this, you’ll pay a monthly subscription of £19.99.
Given that’s double the going rate for standard audio streaming services, that price point is going to be a turn-off for a lot of men (and apparently all women), but the USP of higher quality audio may be enough to build a sustainable if niche business. At least until lossless streaming becomes the norm across all services. Which it will.
Switching between music playing at Spotify’s current highest quality setting and the same music playing in Tidal on a fairly bog standard set of headphones, it was hard to hear much difference. The bass was slightly more pleasing in Tidal though. And the new service does have a much nicer and more user-friendly app. But while I’m all for streaming services having better apps, I’m not sure that’s enough to convince me to spend an extra tenner a month. Maybe that’s my feminine side talking though.
Tidal CEO Andy Chen (a man) said in a statement: “We are delighted that Tidal has launched and that music lovers can now appreciate music the way it is meant to sound. But the music is just one part of the service. The expert editorial educates, entertains and enriches the music experience while the music videos complement the music perfectly. We are sure that Tidal will quickly become the music streaming service of choice for all who appreciate high quality at every level”.
Anyway, you’re probably wondering what ‘the five things a man should have’ are. Knock yourself out fellas:
Ladies, please don’t feel left out. Remember that you can still buy headphones with flowers on them that are designed not to hurt your inferior ears.
