In came the Tidal wave …weeks later we’re still dry

When selling something to anyone, one of the most important objectives should be to identify the need of consumers. From there you can help them understand how your product or service meets that need in a way that competitors cannot.

...Can someone tell Jay Z that?

Meeting a Serious Need

Tidal is a great product and an even better idea (I love the design!) . The reality is that music creatives have been getting completely disrespected by corporate executives for decades.

As Wired Magazine reorted earlier this year, Aloe Black's "Wake Me Up", on Spotify and Pandora, was streamed over 168 million times. After being one of the most popular songs in 2014, Aloe Black and two partners made just $12,359 which they split 3 ways.

That's rediculous and so many levels of wrong.

Over our Heads and Past our Needs

Tidal works to give artists a greater share of proceeds from their music and creativity. However, the new service's artist-centric marketing approach is unfortunately a big part of the problem Tidal is facing I believe. Much of the messaging goes over the heads of potential customers and right past the perceived needs of music streaming customers.

Tidal keeps targeting these so called “audio-philes.” If you review the copy on the homepage of the website for the product it is incredibly convoluted and/or out of touch.

While an avid reader will understand word like "hi-fidelity" or "expertly curated," many won’t.

At no point does Tidal tell me how it’s going to change the way I live in a way that Spotify or Pandora did not.

When one does actually sign up for a service that is more expensive than existing products, the user experience is incredibly similar to Spotify, giving customers very little added-value.

Hopefully Jay can sell us on this one

Yes, artists should make more money for their work. No one can live on this earth without artistic expression.

Yes, Jay-Z will keep doing exclusive releases on Tidal and provide exclusive tickets to Tidal subscribers for his next Brooklyn concert. They will even get more major artists to exclusively release new content on Tidal.

However, after all of that, Tidal will still have to prove to consumers that their new service allows them to listen to music and content in an efficient and revolutionary matter.

They should probably just start by speaking in a language that us regular folks can understand...Only then will we understand why we should spend more money on a new product when what we have works for us.

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Medvis Jackson is a web designer at Hindsite, curator at Kulchah and avid cricket fan. You can follow him @medvisjackson for his random thoughts.

#perspectives #music