An activity that has gained popularity in the digital sphere is music streaming. A ubiquitous issue for streaming service providers is how to differentiate from their competitors in the industry. Companies often appeal to their customer segments by offering value propositions and points of differences. These efforts in turn provide them with a comparative advantage over their competitors in the industry. As seen in this article, Tidal is launching a platform in the UK and US which charges twice the price of its rivals for the proposition of a quadrupled standard in music quality.
In response to Sharon Zhao’s blog post found here, Tidal does not need to embrace the widespread freemium business model that many competitors in this industry choose to adopt because Tidal is positioning itself as a premium service which dominates the exclusive market of audiophiles who are willing to pay for high quality music. The Scandinavian tech company Aspiro launched Tidal which offers value propositions which its rival firms are unable to match. The consumer is often willing to pay more for a unique service or product, and in this case, Tidal is offering over 25 million songs, 75 thousand music videos and interviews and editorials of emerging artists. Competitive markets often pushes firms to re-position themselves to achieve more market dominance. This often means differentiating from other firms in the industry. Unlike its competitors, Tidal doesn’t offer a free version of its services. This indicates that the firm targets a customer segment which is willing to pay a high price for high quality service. Other similar streaming service providers such as Deezer, Spotify and Qobuz are trailing Tidal in their ability to offer lossless quality music streaming technology and will still rely heavily on the freemium business model which has such a firm grasp on this particular industry.
Sources Referenced:
Dredge, Stuart. “News Technology Digital Music and Audio Tidal Takes on Spotify with Lossless-quality streaming music.” Digital Music and Audio. The Guardian, 28 Oct. 2014. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.
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