HIP-HOP Tidal Claims Three Million Global Subscribers, Finally Releases Kanye's 'Pablo' Stream Numbers

The one-year anniversary of Tidal's gaudy, much-maligned launch event in New York City is tomorrow, March 30 -- so naturally, the service celebrating with an announcement the day before, releasing new numbers on both subscribers and exclusive releases. In its first year, Tidal claims to have passed three million paid subscribers globally, adding about 2.5 million subs to the approximately 540,000 it had when it launched in the U.S.

Of those subscribers, 45 percent, or around 1.35 million, have signed up for its hi-fidelity, lossless audio/video tier, which costs $19.99 per month as opposed to its regular $9.99/month tier. Those fans pay for access to almost 40 million tracks and 130,000 music videos, as well as its live streams, exclusive premieres and original video content series. While three million subscribers is certainly a win for Tidal in 12 months, it still lags behind its biggest competitors in the streaming space; Apple Music, which launched last June, claims 11 million paid subscribers, while Spotify CEO Daniel Ek just announced last week that his service hit the 30 million subscriber mark, adding five million in the first few months of 2016.

Streaming wars aside, Tidal also finally released numbers for Kanye West's The Life of Pablo streams for the first time, after West requested the service withhold the numbers when the album first became available in February. According to Tidal, Pablo surpassed 250 million streams in its first 10 days of release. Pablo, which West previously said would only ever exist on Tidal, has been going through some changes in real time of late as the artist updates certain tracks, and just yesterday made the single "Famous," featuring Rihanna, available on both Apple Music and Spotify, ending his Tidal-only crusade.

In other Tidal-related news, the service now boasts 20 artist-owners, up from the 16 it started with. French band Indochine becomes the latest addition, after Lil Wayne, Damian Marley and TIP all signed on in recent months. Jay Z, Beyonce, Rihanna, West, Madonna and more were all present at the launch event as the service's original artist-owners.