To be honest I think Tidal was always loaded with problems from the onset. Yes, it's technically more supportive to the artist than services such as Spotify and the extra subscription charges offer exclusive content but arguably, that is a small pay off for the amount of money Tidal actually costs.And from the perspective of the music industry in general, all that does is possibly drive people back to illegal downloads, streaming and piracy - especially if it really did 'revolutionise' as Jay Z said it would, the way we consume music. Illegal downloads and streaming has done inordinate amounts of damage to artists and the music industry in general, as sales basically mean nothing and thus money doesn't really get invested into new music. It doesn't harm people like Jay Z but it harms people who have fledgling music careers in particular and it harms distribution and record companies.
The fact is, people have been using Spotify with little to no problems and much more enjoyment for lower prices for years. It kind of feels like Tidal is taking the fun out of it in many ways by basically depriving fans of content if they aren't willing to splash out the extra money, which doesn't seem fair and is almost disrespectful to the people who purchase their music anyway and go and see them live. The fall out of this is already apparent- even Kanye West has made to distance himself from Tidal after vocally supporting it originally. In the end, Tidal has fallen flat because it looks and smells like a rip off, and people aren't willing to make themselves familiar with it just for the sake of 'exclusive content'- which in turn has a knock on effect on the artists. Sorry to write an essay about this but it's something I've been following. Anyway, look at Taylor Swift- she took her songs off Spotify because she said they were exploiting her in some way and she was losing out- but now she's gone over to Tidal and it seems to me like yeah, it's a smart business move but it's not so good if you want people to actually listen to your songs. And another thing is, for example, fans of Jack White or affiliated artists can already pay to have access to The Vault, a subscription service which gives access to exclusive content, packages, and even web chats with Jack White himself. He's also shown support for Tidal, and people who already subscribe to The Vault feel blindsided because they're being put to one side. All of it kind of stinks of a bunch of celebrities complaining because they can't have it all.