The news of the day reads that after months and years of speculation, the fast-growing streaming service created by the Norwegian public company Aspiro and owned by Shawn Carter (famously known as Jay-Z) has finally added Nigeria as one of the countries that can take advantage of the popular digital outlet.
TIDAL was originally a Norwegian streaming platform, it was only in 2015 that Project Panther Bidco Ltd, Jay-Z’s company, acquired the programme for the sweet sum of USD $56.2 million.
The idea was to create, in partnership with other streaming platforms, a streaming service owned by the artist, for the artist, that through its subscriptions, would make music, podcasts and high-definition music videos and many other exclusive contents, available worldwide.
By 2017, TIDAL was the first company to announce a partnership with British company Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) which gave them the opportunity to offer, among other services, master-quality recordings, the authenticated and unbroken version with highest-possible resolution.
In the same year, US mobile carrier Sprint and the Mercedes-Benz brands also became partners of the fast-growing streaming platform.
As we know, TIDAL’s journey to Nigeria was not a straightforward one. The first African country that was able to benefit from the platform was, in fact, Kampala, Uganda, through the partnership with African largest mobile company MTN.
The partnership entailed that TIDAL subscription would be available to all MTN subscribers as a part of their phone package. The decision to bring TIDAL to Nigeria now is clearly a well thought out marketing strategy for Jay-Z, given that the majority of the afrobeats artists that are charting on official hit lists worldwide are originally Nigerian.
Although Nigeria might have not yet mastered the importance of having a functional streaming platform like other places, there is a strong potential for growth.
In this regard, PwC South Africa believes that music streaming in Nigeria is set to grow exponentially by 2023. For Nigeria and Nigerian artistry, this is an opportunity to broaden our genre even further.
Like every new wave, there is also a lot of scepticism surrounding the arrival of TIDAL in Nigeria. IdAfrica.ng, for example, interestingly outlined a few reasons as to why the streaming platform might not be as successful as other countries.
The reasons mentioned by the site ranged from the subscription fees to the availability of data, to the possible outrage that the fact that artists might eventually gain at the expense of the fans might cause animosity to the idea that we live in an era where everything is accessible on the web.
Although these are very sensible reasons to believe that TIDAL might not be successful in Nigeria, we beg to differ. As a consumer, we know that Nigerian fans really go hard for the artist they cherish and love.
If Olamide, Burna Boy, Wizkid or Davido (to mention a few) posted exclusive content on a platform like TIDAL like Beyoncé did with her much-anticipated album Lemonade, we are sure Nigerian fans will follow suit. Contrary to what it may seem, Nigerian youths are not far behind with modern tendencies.
This is a new era in the history of Nigerian creatives and artists to broaden the horizons of our genres of music to the world, TIDAL is in town! And we are so excited to see how things will unfold.
Lastly, stay up to date with all you need to know about African music at SOA, right here.
