Songs Released Exclusively on Tidal Will Suffer on Billboard Charts

Tidal, the new streaming service headed by Jay Z, has promised to pay the highest royalty percentage to artists but artists who release music exclusively through the service may suffer on the charts. According to a study and report from Billboard, if an artists puts a song out exclusively on Tidal the song will chart lower on Billboard's Hot 100 since the service isn't as popular as other platforms like iTunes and Spotify.

Billboard compared where songs peaked on the Hot 100 and where they would have if released through Tidal. Nicki Minaj's "Truffle Butter" would have fell from No. 15 to No.19; Beyonce's "7/11" would have dipped from No. 44 to No. 52; Drake's "Know Yourself" would not have even charted; and Kanye West's "All Day" would have fell from No. 62 to No. 84. Tidal has only released two songs exclusively through the service, Rihanna's "Bitch Better Have My Money," which charted at No. 23 and "American Oxygen."

Billboard came up with these chart positions by assuming that a song released on Tidal would suffer a 95 percent decline in streams compared to being on other on-demand music services. The estimations were made based on the low number of Tidal subscriptions in the U.S. and sources telling the publication that Spotify accounts for 80 percent of one major labels streams. As of right now, Nielsen Music, which provides Billboard with sales and streaming data, does not count Tidal streams in its data.

Filed Under: Jay-Z, tidal

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