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OH S***!: THE NUMBERS DON'T LIE, JAY-Z'S TIDAL IS ALREADY A FLOP

April 21, 2015: Two weeks after Tidal briefly cracked the U.S. iPhone top 20 download chart, the app has crashed out of the top 700. Apparently American consumers have limited empathy towards Beyonce and Nicki. Soon after the launch fiasco, Tidal's CEO was kicked out in a "streamlining" move.  The new CEO Peter Tonstad, a former consultant for the Norwegian Ministry of Environment, has his work cut out for him.

To make matters worse for Tidal, its main rivals are now surging. On April 20th, Pandora and Spotify occupied positions No. 3 and No. 4 on the U.S. iPhone revenue chart, respectively. This was the first time two music streaming services have hit the top 4 in sales simultaneously. In order to achieve the feat, Pandora and Spotify had to push Candy Crush Saga out of U.S. iPhone top 4 revenue chart, which is a remarkable achievement.

As a matter of fact, something curious can be seen in Spotify's download performance right after Tidal's media campaign started bashing its allegedly meager payouts. Spotify surged back into the iPad top 40 download chart on March 31st, right when Tidal's anti-Spotify invective hit its peak in American media. This had not happened since November 2014.

It looks like Tidal's attacks on Spotify and Pandora actually managed to increase public awareness of the services, boosting Spotify's download performance in particular at the end of March. And now, a few weeks later, the combined revenue performance of the two music apps is hitting a new milestone. To add insult to injury, Beats Music has started cracking U.S. iPhone top 20 revenue chart.

Tidal is now facing no fewer than three deep-pocketed rival music apps and they're all minting money and riding strong momentum. The new CEO must somehow find a way to mop up after the ill-advised March launch and find a way to reposition Tidal in a crowded marketŠ preferably by not trying to make consumers feel bad for multimillionaires. Or giving its rivals extra attention. - bgr.com (click here)

 

THE HORROR... THE HORROR

Reports in the April 19, 2015 Daily Mirror suggest that Noel and Liam Gallagher have reached a 'gentleman's agreement' to reform Oasis next year. There has seemingly been a thawing in the pair's relationship lately. Last month saw Liam taking to Twitter to post a photo of himself holding a backstage pass to one of Noel's gigs, who in turn has publicly encouraged his younger sibling to record a solo album. 

The Mirror reported a 'well-placed source' saying: "It's early days in terms of the details, but Noel and Liam are back on good terms and ready to give things another go. Nothing is signed but it's what you might call a gentlemen's agreement between them. Ultimately they're family and whatever has gone on before can be sorted out - they're very close beneath all the bluster."

Which brother is going broke fast?

MORE HORRIBLE TALES

 

It has been revealed by Lou Reed's wife that David Bowie thinks her husband's 2011 collaboration with Metallica, 'Lulu', is his "greatest work". During Laurie Anderson's speech at Reed's induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame on April 18, 2015, the late singer's widow said that consensus on the record is changing. "One of [Lou's] last projects was his album with Metallica," she said. "And this was really challenging, and I have a hard time with it. There are many struggles and so much radiance. And after Lou's death, David Bowie made a big point of saying to me, 'Listen, this is Lou's greatest work. This is his masterpiece. Just wait, it will be like 'Berlin'. It will take everyone a while to catch up.'"

Anderson added: "I've been reading the lyrics and it is so fierce. It's written by a man who understood fear and rage and venom and terror and revenge and love. And it is raging." Reed was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame on April 18, 2015.

He lied.

ALBINI'S TURN TO SCOLD TIDAL

In an interview in Vulture, Albini has raised doubts over Jay Z's TIDAL and calling it a "budget version of Pono", Neil Young's high-definition music player. "Historically, every time there's been a new technological progression, there's been a new convenience format [for listening to music]," Albini is quoted as saying. "So the question is, is it possible for something to be more convenient than streaming? And the answer is obviously yes. If you want your music to play at the push of a button, convenience is going to trump sound quality 100 percent of the time."

"It's for the same reason that if you had a screen that displayed paintings in your living room, very few serious art enthusiasts would care for such a screen despite the fact that it might show you very high-resolution images of artworks. They want to own a piece of art that is a direct connection to the person who made it. Having an HD screen in your house that would display artwork might have a market, but it's not the same market as people who are interested in owning art."

Albini continues that the growing number of streaming services, each with exclusive content, may mean that music fans seek alternate means of consuming music. "The for-pay services are deluding themselves by trying to establish a permanent monetization of something that's in flux. The internet provides access to materials and things. Creating these little streaming fiefdoms where certain streaming services have certain artists and certain streaming services have other artists is a crippled use of the internet. If the internet has demonstrated anything over the years, it's that it has a way of breaking limitations placed on its content."

Last year, Steve Albini called online music sharing the best thing since punk rock. "The single best thing that has happened in my lifetime in music, after punk rock, is being able to share music, globally for free. That's an incredible development," he said.

THIS WEEK'S WTF MOMENT

And this citation earns the local government US$2,000. May the force be with you.

SAN ANTONIO WOMAN FINED $2,000 FOR FEEDING HOMELESS PEOPLE

According to the San Antonio Express News, April 16, 2015 do-gooder Joan Cheever was in Maverick Park serving a meal that included lamb meatballs, spaghetti, a garden salad and a vegetable soup, when San Antonio police cited her for violating the city code, because she transported the food to the park in a vehicle other than the mobile truck for which she has a food permit.

"I told the officer that we cook dinner in the truck and then we put it in health-department-approved catering equipment, like every caterer or restaurant-delivery service in this town, and then serve it. And he said, 'You can't do that.'"

David Martin Davies, host of "The Source" on Texas Public Radio, witnessed and recorded Cheever's Tuesday night encounter with the police officers.

"She seemed aware going into it that there was a change in the way the police were acting, and something like this might be coming," Davies said, adding, "She's unabashed. She's not going to back down."

Cheever is scheduled to go before the Municipal Court on June 23, but she remained defiant after receiving the citation, arguing that under the 1999 Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, she has a right to serve food to the homeless because she considers it a free exercise of her religion.  "This is how I pray," she told the local NBC affiliate, "when I cook this food and deliver it to the people who are less fortunate." - Zero Hedge (click here)

THE LAST WORD ON '420'

"In celebration of 420, here's an interlude from my 8th studio album that I call James Joint."

- Rihanna, April 21, 2015. Listen to James Joint here.

Wikipedia says, "420, 4:20, or 4/20 (pronounced four-twenty) is a code-term that refers to the consumption of cannabis and by extension, as a way to identify oneself with cannabis subculture or simply cannabis itself. Observances based on the number 420 include smoking cannabis around the time 4:20 p.m (16:20) on any given day, as well as smoking and celebrating cannabis on the date April 20." Why, what CAN she mean?!