Amazon Music ($AMZN) announced its new HD option, which is a direct shot across the bow at Tidal's HiFi ($PRIVATE:TIDAL). Both are streaming tiers that offer essentially the best quality streaming sounds money can buy.
Tidal HiFi will cost you $19.99 a month, and Amazon HD only runs $12.99 a month for Prime members and $2 more for Amazon customers. Since Tidal now has to compete with the likes of Spotify ($SPOT) and Apple Music ($AAPL), AND they have to go up against other lossless providers in Qobuz, Deezer, and HDtracks, how are they doing relatively speaking?
Quite well, as it turns out.
Social media
In 2016, Tidal barely had over 100 employees. They broke the 200 threshold last July, and hit 300 just a few days ago. If things continue to progress at the same rate, 400 is achievable by next year. The increase in Tidal's wave of workers is closely tied to its userbase and social media following, which is also getting stronger by the day.
The Tidal account on Twitter enjoyed 35% follower growth, and the number of people following on Facebook broke 1 million earlier this year.
App Store ratings
The average review scores on both Apple and Android has gotten better over time.
Tidal broke the 4 star rating in April of 2018 on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
Maybe Tidal can turn all of this good will into being more aggressive with its library and pricing model. It could theoretically take on Apple Music, Spotify, and now Amazon Music, as long as it aims to add more to its service and price it appropriately.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.
