Spotify vs. Tidal vs. Apple Music: Jay Z Music Service Inflating Subscriber Numbers?

Streaming music service Tidal has potentially been inflating its subscriber numbers, according to a report from Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv via The Verge.

As The Verge notes, internal reports found Tidal had only 350,000 subscribers in March 2015 despite a tweet from Jay Z saying the service had more than 1 million users.

In March 2016, the site also touted that it had more than 3 million subscribers, but reports showed it only had 1.2 million active accounts and 850,000 paid subscribers. However, Tidal said in a statement to The Verge last March it was aware of past subscriber number issues and pinned the blame on the service’s prior ownership.

"The growth in our subscriber numbers has been even more phenomenal than we’ve previously shared,” Tidal told The Verge. “It became clear after taking control of TIDAL and conducting our own audit that the total number of subscribers was actually well below the 540,000 reported to us by the prior owners. As a result, we have now served legal notice to parties involved in the sale."

As Dagens Næringsliv notes, no lawsuit has been filed yet.

Since its high-profile relaunch back in 2015, Tidal has struggled to separate itself from competitors in the streaming music space. While Tidal has locked down timed exclusives from artists like Beyoncé, the service is still far behind market leaders like Apple Music and Spotify.

Spotify announced that the service had 30 million paid subscribers in early March, while Apple Music broke the 20 million user threshold late last year. Apple Music has also made moves for similar artist-exclusive content with radio shows hosted by musicians and public figures like Ezra Koenig, St. Vincent and Zane Lowe.