Jay Z’s Spotify rival to launch in 22 new countries

The hi-fidelity music service soon to be owned by Jay Z will add 22 new countries to its list of active markets this quarter.

Last week reports surfaced that the music mogul’s$US56 million (466 million Swedish kronor) public offer for Scandinavian company Aspiro was accepted. Aspiro operates streaming platforms WiMP and Tidal in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Now Tidal will boast 30 active markets when they launch in Austria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, South Africa and Turkey.

However the subscriber numbers for both services pale in comparison to market leaders like Spotify and Rdio. Aspiro’sthird quarter financials filingfor 2014 states it has512,000 paying subscribers, a decline of 2% on the previous quarter – Spotify reached 15 million paying subscribers last month.WiMP and Tidal users may be up 75% on the last quarter at 35,000 with Tidal taking 12,000, but Spotify has 60 million users overall worldwide.

Granted, WiMP and Tidal are relatively new to the market. Tidallaunched in the US and UK last October, in Canada last December, and in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland and Ireland last month on January 22. It offers users a catalogue of 25 million tracks and 75,000 music videos and has integration partnerships with 37 confirmedelectronics companies.

It’s also targeting audiophile users, much in the way Neil Young is doing with his Pono Music, andis marketed around its FLAC technology (FLAC/ALAC 44.1kHz / 16 bit – 1411 kbps).

Tidal CEO Andy Chen said in a statement:“Experiencing Tidal on high-quality home audio systems and headphones proves just how good high-quality music streaming can sound. 2015 will be the year a lot of people discover that.”