Tidal investor Win Butler of Arcade Fire has admitted that the streaming service’s launch was “poorly managed” but lays the blame for the company’s struggles at the feet of “clueless” major labels.
In an interview with The Independent, the frontman accepts that the star-studded launch of Tidal — which he attended with wife and bandmate Régine Chassagne— was not effective. “None of the artists knew anything about the PR,” he said. “It was a poorly managed launch, but conceptually the thing that we liked about Tidal was that it’s HD streaming quality.”
But that dedication better quality audio came with a price for Tidal, which costs twice as much as competitors like Spotify and Apple Music.
“They dictated that Tidal has to cost $20,” Butler said of the big labels.
He added, ”the major label music industry has completely ruined every aspect of their business. At every step of the way they’ve had the tools offered to them to create an industry that works, and they’ve completely blown it. That’s why we never had any interest in signing a contract with one of these companies because they’re clearly completely clueless.”
Butler further defended his band’s involvement with Tidal.
“It seems silly, for fear of being embarrassed, to not at least sit at the table with Jay Z, Kanye and Daft Punk and talk about art and music and how it’s going to be distributed,” he said.
