Tidal’s lineup of big music exclusives appears to be paying off, albeit slowly. The streaming service announced Wednesday that it now has 3 million subscribers globally, one year after the service hosted a star-studded launch event featuring co-owners Jay-Z, Kanye West, Beyonce, Daft Punk and others.
Tidal is still far off from industry leader Spotify, which recently announced it has 30 million paying subscribers, and runner-up Apple Music, which has 11 million. But it still appears to be gaining users at a steady clip. Back in September the service had just 1 million subscribers.
The company’s unique ownership structure—more than a dozen major artists own an equity stake in the firm—has helped it nab some big exclusives. Rihanna’s new album ANTI was initially Tidal-only, and it was downloaded 1.4 million times within 24 hours. Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo remains a Tidal exclusive that you can’t even buy on CD or in the iTunes store. It was streamed 250 million times on the service in its first 10 days available.
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