The market competition in the field of music streaming is fierce. Apple Music is growing faster. However, there is a gap between it and the industry leaders in terms of user scale. The key to competing for users is exclusive content.
Apple Music’s growth rate
Two million paying users are added every two months or so. Apple Music is expanding at this rate. As of the Developer Conference in June this year, the number of subscribers has reached 15 million. This number highlights the attractiveness of Apple's services, which are particularly advantageous in the integrated hardware ecosystem. However, compared with the giant with hundreds of millions of paying users, its overall number is still small at the moment. If it wants to match its position in the technology industry, Apple must grow faster.
Although the growth rate is considerable, the market space is being divided rapidly. Competitors have seized the opportunity with earlier layout and flexible strategies. Apple's expectations are significantly higher. The number of 15 million users may not have reached the internally set stage goal, which makes the company look for a more radical development strategy.
The strategic intention of acquiring Tidal
The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has the intention to acquire Jay Z’s Tidal music service. Tidal has approximately 42 million paying users. Its core asset is its close relationship with many top artists. This potential transaction is not intended to simply add users, but to obtain key content resources.
What Apple values is Tidal, which has signed exclusive distribution agreements with stars such as Beyoncé and Rihanna. These agreements can enable new albums to be launched on the Tidal platform for weeks or months. With acquisitions, Apple can instantly strengthen the uniqueness and attractiveness of its content library, which is difficult to achieve quickly by relying solely on its own growth.
The value of exclusive content
In the field of streaming music, music libraries are severely homogenized, and exclusive content has evolved into the key to service differentiation. There is a platform called Tidal, which relies on its own "high-fidelity" sound quality and the artist-shareholder model to successfully bind several musicians with strong market appeal. The works created by these artists are only limited to the Tidal platform during the initial release period, thus attracting a large number of fans to subscribe.
As far as Apple is concerned, it is not enough to just have the exclusive resources of a small number of artists like Taylor Swift. Providing more diverse and sustainable exclusive content is the key to retaining old users and attracting new users. The acquisition of Tidal is seen as a shortcut to obtain this content supply capability.
Tidal’s development history and appeal
In 2015, Jay Z spent $56 million to acquire the predecessor of Tidal, and then transformed it into a platform that emphasized artist rights and sound quality. He also invited many celebrities to become shareholders. This strategy has allowed Tidal to find a unique position in an extremely competitive market. Although it faces financial pressure, its brand and content partnerships have always attracted attention.
For this reason, Tidal has also caused technology companies such as Samsung to develop acquisition interests in the past. It proves that for a platform with the endorsement of top musicians, the intrinsic value of its brand and its ability to negotiate content are part of a huge universe of intangible assets. This is of strategic importance to any large company that wants to develop further in the field of music streaming.
Challenges facing Apple
The main challenge facing Apple's music service is the speed at which content can be put online. Users often find that some popular songs or albums have been available on other platforms for a long time, but they are still not available on Apple Music. Such delays harm the user experience, especially among younger users who are chasing the latest music trends.
Apple needs to improve its cooperation mechanism with major record companies and independent labels to shorten the review and release cycle of new songs. At the same time, how to balance exclusive agreements with the update of an extensive music library is also a difficult problem that must be managed carefully. Acquisitions alone may not be able to eliminate all problems.
The future competitive landscape
If Apple successfully acquires Tidal, competition at the top of the streaming music market will surely become more concentrated. Apple will acquire a large number of high-end users and unique artist resources, which may change the balance of power with existing leaders. This will prompt other competitors to invest more resources in content cooperation and product innovation.
Acquisition or not, the battle for exclusive content will only get fiercer. Musicians will have more voice, and platforms will have to provide more value besides copyright fees, such as data analysis, publicity and promotion, or fan interaction tools, so as to establish long-term and stable cooperative relationships.
Do you think it is possible for Apple to eventually overtake the streaming music market by acquiring Tidal? Welcome to express your opinions in the comment area. If you think the analysis makes sense, please give it a like and support.
