The announcement came on Reddit after one user posted a statement saying their Anjuna playlists were gone. Gareth Jones, head of A&R at Anjuna, responded to the Reddit post saying, “Sorry for the inconvenience but unfortunately Tidal haven’t been paying royalties to labels. Until that changes, Anjuna catalogue won’t be available on the site.”
To be clear, Anjunabeats removing their music from Tidal is not as significant as an $84 million lawsuit. However, it is significant in the fact that a credible music label has removed their music from streaming service entirely. In Gareth’s post, he mentioned that Tidal haven’t been paying royalties to labels- not only just Anjuna. Tidal’s problem sounds like it’s far more reaching than just Anjunabeats.
Anjunabeats is a label best known for their high quality of music but also for their business positioning strategy and marketing. The move could possibly start a trickledown effect within the industry. Perhaps we’ll see other dance music labels begin to pull their music from Tidal as well. Or who knows, maybe Tidal figures it out and Anjuna comes back to the platform. Only time will tell.
You can check out the Reddit thread below and make sure to let us know what you think of Anjuna’s decision to remove their music.