Jaz-Z owned music-streaming company Tidal has more than doubled its losses over the past year, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Aspiro AB, the holding company purchased by Jay-Z and other artists in 2015, recorded a net loss of 239 million Swedish kronor ($28 million) last year. They ran a 88.9 million Swedish kronor ($10.4 million) deficit in 2014.
By contrast, revenue rose 30% last year to 402 million Swedish kronor, up from from 309 million kronor in 2015.
Tidal’s parent company, Aspiro AB, recorded a net profit of 35.4 million Swedish kronor at the end of 2015, down from 63.5 million kronor a year earlier. According to Norwegian business publication Dagens Naeringsliv, the holding company is currently delinquent on payments to over 100 labels and owe $438,000 in unpaid bills.
Tidal’s fiscal failures sharply differ from their more superficial successes. The company has exclusively released albums from Beyoncé, Kanye West, and Rhiannia, and has grown its subscription base to 4.2 million, up from 540,000 in March 2015.
Primary streaming competitor Spotify, while also recording a net loss in 2015, has expanded much faster than Tidal, doubling its revenue to 1.95 billion euros ($2.19 billion). Spotify currently has 30 million paying subscribers, while Apple Music has 17 million.
A person familiar with the matter told the WSJ “the financial statement doesn’t paint a complete picture of the situation at Tidal because it doesn’t reflect all U.S. revenue and financing.
Tidal has refused to comment on their massive losses. They continue to lag behind both Spotify and Apple Music, and will likely need to implement large scale changes to effectively compete under current market conditions.
Tidal charges $20 per month for a high-fidelity version of its 40 million-song catalog and $10 a month for download-quality sound. This weighty cost effectively limits Tidal’s potential growth.
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