Apple in Exploratory Talks to Acquire Jay Z’s Tidal Music Service • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple in Exploratory Talks to Acquire Jay Z’s Tidal Music Service

#61

Post by tedmiston » Fri, Jul 01, 2016, 3:56 PM UTC

uptown wrote: post #3

Acquisitions like this make no sense to me. At best you're getting access to the current popular artists under temporary licenses from a platform that's failed to gain a massive user base.

Calling Kanye / Jay Z / Beyonce "the current popular artists" is a bit disingenuous. Look who he out-sold:

> 10 #1 albums in a row, who better than me?

> Only The Beatles, nobody ahead of me

> I crush Elvis and his Blue Suede Shoes

> Made the Rolling Stones seem sweet as Kool-Aid too

http://genius.com/31930

At this point he is a dominant force in music... and we're not even talking the commercialized aspects beyond albums themselves. Jay is a genius.

Re: Apple in Exploratory Talks to Acquire Jay Z’s Tidal Music Service

#62

Post by tedmiston » Fri, Jul 01, 2016, 3:58 PM UTC

Esau wrote: post #34

k-mcgrady wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In one year they've managed to acquire half the number of paid subscribers Spotify has - and with a pretty buggy product. That's pretty impressive.

I suspect that is largely because the product is bundled with the iOS. I wonder how it doesn't on Android, where people have to go out of their way to install it.

Does it even matter? The iOS device base is so large that Apple can get more paid customers than Spotify on their own devices alone.

Re: Apple in Exploratory Talks to Acquire Jay Z’s Tidal Music Service

#63

Post by tedmiston » Fri, Jul 01, 2016, 4:06 PM UTC

abritinthebay wrote: post #57

Esau wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way is Apple Music better than Spotify? I've tried both and, other than catalog differences, I don't see one as really being better than the other.

For a start: the UI. I know Apple Music gets hate for it's UI but it's nirvana compared to the horrible, grating, death by 1000 papercuts UI that Spotify has. So that contributes a LOT to my impression of Spotify. I find their radio offerings better than Spotify, and the curated playlists to be of higher quality and better variation. The For You tab alone is better than a lot of what I found on Spotify. The importing…

Does Apple have an equivalent of Discovery Weekly yet? That's become one of my favorite Spotify features.

Re: Apple in Exploratory Talks to Acquire Jay Z’s Tidal Music Service

#64

Post by tedmiston » Fri, Jul 01, 2016, 4:08 PM UTC

magic5227 wrote: post #42

heavymark wrote: post #38

While the Beats acquisition made sense for their talent and get a little faster entry into music streaming, but buying Tidal doesn't make much sense at all. Tidal software and technology doesn't offer anything of value. Jay Z presumably would not want to work under Apple long term. Tidal has licenses with a lot of artists but those wouldn't transfer to Apple Music, they would have to renogitate with them. And the who…

They aren't buying it as a competitor, its likely for the talent+exclusive content offerings.

Exactly. Love it or hate it, exclusive content = monetization in a market where streaming services struggle to differentiate beyond their catalogs.

Re: Apple in Exploratory Talks to Acquire Jay Z’s Tidal Music Service

#65

Post by markcerqueira » Wed, Jul 06, 2016, 3:12 AM UTC

Throwaway23412 wrote: post #29

markcerqueira wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many of those 15 million are people who forgot to turn off auto-renew on their free trial?

Apple Music has been out for a year today. After the initial three-month free trial, I would think that most people would notice $10 missing from their bank accounts every month.

I think "most people" is giving "most people" too much credit!