Apple deliberately delayed updates of the iOS app of the new music streaming service Tidal, to crush the service in preparation on the launch of its own music streaming service Beats Music, according to the New York Post.
Tidal offers music in CD quality instead of compressed lossy MP3 files. The service has been in the news a lot recently because rapper Jay-Z acquired Tidal for $56 million. Apple allegedly deliberately delayed Tidal app updates on iOS. This should make the service a less attractive alternative to Apple's own music streaming service, Beats Music, that is expected to be announced in June this year.
Delaying of updates would also have caused that the number of downloads of the Tidal app in the App Store decreased. In addition, there's a rumor Apple disadvantages artists that exclusively launch on Tidal, such as Rihanna with her new song American Oxygen. There artists would no longer be promoted as features artist and e.g Rihanna's song American Oxygen was scrambled for a while or had "technical issues" on iTunes.
Apple has denied the rumors about Rihanna and iTunes but didn't want to comment on the other rumors.
Jay-Z has stated that Tidal "is doing just fine "with 770,000 subscribers. "The iTunes Store wasn't built in a day. It took Spotify 9 years to be successful", according to the rapper on Twitter. "We are here for the long haul. Please give us a chance to grow & get better", he added.
