Beyoncé's 'Lemonade' and Prince help Tidal secure its most successful month
Streaming service Tidal is experiencing the most successful month on the App Store since it was founded little over a year ago, due to a combination of strategy and tragedy.
Downloads of the music platform's app peaked in April following interest from fans in Prince's back catalogue following his unexpected passing last week. The artist had made his musical collection available exclusively on Tidal last year, causing subscribers to the service to soar a few days ago as fans sought out his greatest hits.
Following the sad news on 21 April, the app jumped 290 places in Apple's US App Store overall according to data from analytics tool App Annie. Tidal reached number 25 in the music category of the store on the same day, soaring up from its position in number 34.
Three days later, Beyoncé released her hotly-anticipated visual album 'Lemonade' exclusively on the service, though it is now available for purchase on iTunes, causing downloads to swell once again.
Her fanbase, the Bey Hive, helped Tidal jump to number three in the overall App Store chart, and pushed it up to the number one spot in the music category; pipping rivals like Apple Music and Spotify to the post.
Tidal, which is owned by musician Jay Z (Beyoncé's husband), has sought to stand out in the ever-growing streaming market by offering subscribers early access to content and events. Releases such as Kanye West's 'The Life of Pablo' have helped the platform reach three million subscribers, though this figure is still relatively small compared to Spotify's 30 million-strong user base.
However, this short-term popularity may not translate into long-term success for the brand due to the service's 30-day free trial incentive for subscribers, which can be easily abandoned after 30 days.