Square acquiring majority stake in TIDAL

Definitely. I don’t play music through Bandcamp but I have purchased music, physical media, and merch from there.

The difference is upselling fans at the time they’re connecting with the artist(s) / music.

Also, TIDAL/Square have opportunities in the live/virtual performance space and taking advantage of listener data for incentives.

Umm, because the CEO Danny said as much several days ago.I replied that he should really pin that response to the top of this forum. No speculation needed. But perhaps you have special insight to Roon that the CEO doesn’t?

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Not sure how to pull another post into another to quote, but here’s a cut and paste from the CEO:

“Spotify will not allow commercial integrations at all, api or data driven. This is all them, not us. To do what Roon does, we need data dumps instead of apis, but in Spotify’s case, neither is an option for a commercial partner (with a few strategic exceptions like Sonos and Tesla).”

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He has made no such statement for Amazon Music though.

Also, CEO of Roon is not Danny… - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ennovandermeer/?originalSubdomain=uk

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He is COO, I think that might count. And about Amazon:

Tidal has 9 lives. Amazing! First the Sprint investment now this.

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go to the other post, click its link button, copy the link, paste it elsewhere on a separate line :slight_smile:

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JAY-Z is an amazing salesman, if you look at other transactions (e.g. his champaign brand).

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…as in Qobuz?

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Oh physical media. Sorry I missed that.

I am not sure Tidal’s demographic would be interested in physical. Digital maybe. The reality is that a majority of users aren’t going to want either. Stream it!

I hope so!

I am assuming they would save money by dumping MQA licensing.

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Always said MQA will be heading the way of all previous DRM attempts eventually. Lets see.

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So Square bought Tidal.

Folks are going to be in for a rude awakening if/when Square decides to stop allowing other platforms from accessing Tidal. Keeping users within the Tidal ecosystem and using its product instead of accessing Tidal from outside seems normal. Does Tidal really need a niche product?

Other products like Sonos use Tidal-Connect, which allows Tidal to maintain complete control of the user-experience while at the same time allowing users to stream Tidal to [product A]. This product seems unique in that it creates its own Tidal user experience which meshes with its own product not Tidal. Seems to me this is not a win for Tidal in terms of the user experience stand point, nor is it a win in terms of Tidal utilizing and creating a ROI from its Tidal-Connect feature.

With one wave of the magic wand a closed API could happen just that easy.

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Presumably, roon has some sort of contract. On the other hand, I’ve learned that contracts are only as good as each side’s lawyers and the mood (or sobriety) of any given judge on any given day.

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Each sides lawyers…

I’m thinking that a company with a Market Cap of 99.29B USD has some pretty good lawyers.

That would be Square.

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Not only are vinyl sales on the rise but, again, this opens doors for a wide range of product offerings from artist to fans.

I would pay good money to tune into live basement sessions from artists I enjoy. The market is ripe for this type of thing given the new ‘normal’ and all.

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I see your point, but logistically the fulfillment process will be quite an undertaking. 100’s of thousands of artists many of them selling products to fans all over the world. I suppose this could work if Tidal teamed up with Amazon or some other reseller. I wouldn’t underestimate this challenge.

So one very wealthy person sold Tidal to another very wealthy person… big yawn.

While streaming services are great for the consumer, and the upper echelon of the corporate structure, it’s terrible for the average artist. The artists ought to unionize and collectively bargain, like the NFL, NBA, etc players do. It would be like herding cats, but worth a try. If artists had the power to strike and have all the music cease to stream, their hand would be much stronger. And given how little they are paid, going on strike would be an easy card to play.