Looks like Tidal is doomed!

The last line attempts to focus on PR, but the article itself makes it plain there are serious financial issues involved. Being behind in royalty payments is recoverable, but this could also be a giant death spiral. 

What I like about Tidal is the vast catalog. Depending on how that was structured, this could be unsustainable. 

Best,

E

Have been following the streaming services and their royalty payments for some time because it seems to me that most services (and especially Spotify) do not charge nearly enough in monthlies to provide reasonable compensation to artists.
Naxos is offering a high end streaming service for classical music with a more realistic $32 a month or $315 a year. This is a move forward in my opinion because it promotes a realistic business model not based upon loss leading used to grab listeners then making up for the unrealistically low income in some other way later one.
The downward pressure from streaming on musicians has been devastating and has recently been described in depth by the NY Times and other publications. Streaming services and Internet users should consider the total economic model because if the design promotes poverty on the part of the participating artists then the artistic content will not last.
A separate issue is accountability and transparency. Who knows whether the service provides accurate totals and compensation? Programmers might develop tools to provide some security here.

If Netflix can offer unlimited streaming of video content, which is often more expensive to license than audio content, for $15/month then Tidal should be able to figure out how to do audio for $20/month.

I like Tidal, and they do have a reputation for quality of content even if the business side has been a bit flaky.  I have a feeling someone will step in and acquire them if things get dire.

If they fail, there's always Deezer and the upcoming US launch of Qobuz. 

It may well be the case that the fees are not enough to cover expenses, and royalty payments are a fraction of what they use to be.  At its peak, the worldwide recorded music business made four times what it makes now.  Pirating has cut very deep into profits.  If you sell CD's or vinyl or downloads or a subscription to a streaming service, you have to price it low enough that someone will pay instead of stealing the content.  I hope Spotify can successfully alter their business and get back on track; it would be worse for buyers as well as musicians if they, and other services, fail.

It's not about making money, it's about getting subscribers.  As long as people are signing up for the service they will have investors backing them.  Not paying people who you owe money to is a time-honored way of doing business with no associated long-term effects.  Just ask our President.  The title of this thread is fake news!