Poland offered 1 year of Tidal free, adds 1 million subscribers
Jay-Z’s music streaming service Tidal has reportedly gained 1 million new subscribers, all from Poland, during a tumultuous time for the company.
According to Polish website Telix Tidal have offered a massive promotion in Poland that allows users to get a free 12 month subscription. This promotion definitely worked as they report that Tidal have just gained 1 million new subscribers.
This is a major deal for Tidal who have faced struggling growth and copyright issues recently, failing to live up to the growth of Apple Music which launched just a few months after Tidal. Since both services launched early last year Tidal have reached roughly 3 million subscribers whilst Apple Music have gained an incredible 20 million subscribers.
Tidal are currently facing a potential lawsuit from Prince’s estate for uploading exclusive releases, including posthumously releasing rare music from Prince. It turns out Tidal didn’t have the correct rights to distribute Prince’s music and now face a potentially devastating lawsuit.
The article from Telix, roughly translated, reads:
A year of free promotion of Tidal Play has proven that at least one million Poles want to -promote legal music. Poles love music, and if you just give them the choice, they are willing to give up piracy. Evidence? From November 2015… 521,389,497 reached for music [in] Tidal and spent a total of up to 2,454 [total listening time] … provided by the service.
Whilst Tidal are facing some tough obstacles at the moment with 1 million new users in Poland they may not be done just yet. It will take a few more promotions like this to build themselves up to a comfortable position but it shows that there is still appeal, but whether offering giant free subscriptions is financially sensible for them… well we’ll have to see.