Seemingly before the bubbles have had a chance to settle following Tidal’s champagne-soaked launch party, the numbers suggest Jay Z’s new streaming service is already a huge flop. While it rose to the Top 20 in iTunes following a star-studded debut that made investors freak out and blindly throw away their money, Tidal is now out of the Top 700. And because it’s not exactly the cheapest streaming service available, it has to rely on celebrity backers and the promise of exclusive content to have any hope of grabbing new users.
So what better to do in a time of crisis than call upon your big guns for a little help? According to DJ Skee, Jay Z and Beyoncé are close to completing their rumored joint album, and it appears they’ll launch it as a Tidal exclusive. It’s not clear to what extent this would turn things around for the company, but it’s a well documented fact that people will flock aggressively toward whatever Beyoncé is associated with, be it a garage sale of her old stuff or that service where she sends you plants in the mail to eat. Of course, it’s 2015, so an “exclusive” label only lasts until someone leaks it elsewhere—which is what happened with Tidal’s release of Rihanna’s “American Oxygen” and Beyoncé’s “Die With You” video—but new CEO Peter Tonstad can deal with that inevitable nightmare. The Carters will probably be fine regardless.