Tidal moving away from music serving

[tomp]

Just saw this.

Attachments

Tidal layoffs and shift.pdf

(13.97 KiB) Downloaded 209 times

[Pelliott321]

no loss to me I use Qobuz

[tomp]

Me too.

[David McGown]

One wonders about the economic model for streaming, even with a subscription fee (about equal to purchasing 1 CD/month), that does not seem to be enough to cover operating/maintaining a service and proper compensation for the content creators. With the Spotify cutback a week or so ago, I am waiting with bated breath of some announcement of cutbacks from Qobuz. I hope not, but am concerned about the health of the streaming services, particularly HiRes.

I have been meaning to check out Presto Music and their streaming service. I buy my downloads from them already, but that at least may be a more sustainable model (I know Qobuz has similar download purchasing, but understand that it is not as open). Been getting by on too much “free” music.

David

[pboser]

To me this is indicative of a possible trend for music-only services to broaden their scope. E.g. Spotify is emphasizing podcasts and books lately. If Tidal and Spotify are going to try to be all things to all people, my guess is that there will be pressure on music only services, like Qobuz, to either expand to other products, or to raise prices (especially if they become the only high-resolution streaming source that's music-only).

I've left Amazon Music out of this - again, they might just raise prices for the small high-resolution audience.

I'm no guru of this industry - what do others think? EDIT:(I see Dave posted something more insightful than the above while I was writing this!)

Pete

[SoundMods]

I'm no guru of this industry - what do others think? EDIT:(I see Dave posted something more insightful than the above while I was writing this!

Pete[/quote]
I don't have any of those problems -- I am quite happy with my cache of CDs and LPs.

[Pelliott321]

What you have is never enough!
For less than the cost of a CD or half of an audiophile LP one can get access to thousands of albums with good sound quality.
Of course one needs a good server and DAC, well at least one that sounds musical.

[tomp]

The main advantage of streaming is the ability to try new music without buying it. It saves buying a CD and deciding you don't care for the music. How many purchased CDs or vinyl albums do you have sitting around not being listened to because you don't care for the music?

[ratbagp]

I suspect Quboz will welcome the news. When you think about it, their relatively fixed costs are those involved with preparing the recording on the servers. This would include transferring the music, booklets, cover art, etc and indexing the information. They have to do the same work regardless of the number of customers and the number of releases is dependent on the recording companies. Of course, there are other fixed costs such as administration and advertising.

The variable part is the number of customers which means more servers spread around the globe, and of course, the costs of connecting to the internet. Here, the more customers, the greater economies of scale.

If Tidal leaves the streaming business, Quboz will probably say thanks very much as some of the former Tidal customers move to Quboz.

ray

[tomp]

Streaming services have more costs than just the fixed costs mentioned. They also pay a royalty per stream. Here is some info.

Attachments

Streaming payments.pdf

(16.8 KiB) Downloaded 189 times