Jay Z fired back at critics of his Tidal music service on Sunday, claiming the site is "doing just fine" and that its subscriber base is growing.
The rapper, who relaunched Tidal after purchasing its parent company Aspiro Group earlier this year for $56 million, urged critics to hold off on dismissing the service too soon.
"The iTunes Store wasn't built in a day," he said. "It took Spotify nine years to be successful."
Jay Z added that 770,000 subscribers have already signed up for Tidal, which he relaunched to compete with platforms such as Pandora and Spotify.
But his series of tweets came shortly after Tidal dropped out of the top 500 most downloaded apps in the U.S. on April 18, according to App Annie data; it then fell further to No. 870 just days later. Following rumors suggesting that Jay Z and Beyonce are creating an album that would debut exclusively on Tidal, the service only jumped up to No. 664 on the app charts.
Meanwhile, Kanye West, one of Tidal's 16 celebrity owners, deleted all references to the service on his Twitter feed by April 22, before backtracking after press caught wind of the removal.
"We are here for the long haul," Jay Z said. "Please give us a chance to grow and get better."
Here's a full look at the rapper's tweets defending Tidal on Saturday:
Stream of consciousness coming in 5, 4, 3, 2… #TidalFacts— Mr. Carter (@S_C_) April 26, 2015
Tidal is doing just fine. We have over 770,000 subs. We have been in business less than one month. #TidalFacts— Mr. Carter (@S_C_) April 26, 2015
The iTunes Store wasn't built in a day. It took Spotify 9 years to be successful…— Mr. Carter (@S_C_) April 26, 2015
We are here for the long haul. Please give us a chance to grow & get better. #TidalFacts— Mr. Carter (@S_C_) April 26, 2015
There are many big companies that are spending millions on a smear campaign. We are not anti-anyone, we are pro-artist & fan. #TidalFacts— Mr. Carter (@S_C_) April 26, 2015
We made Tidal for fans. We have more than just music. We have video, exclusive concerts, tickets for events early, live sports!...— Mr. Carter (@S_C_) April 26, 2015
….Tidal is where artists can give their fans more without the middlemen. #TidalFacts— Mr. Carter (@S_C_) April 26, 2015
Indie artists who want to work directly w/ us keep 100% of their music. "If you don't want the CEOs all in the videos" haa #tidalfacts— Mr. Carter (@S_C_) April 26, 2015
Although Tidal joins an already oversaturated music-streaming market, it's promoting itself as a service that delivers superior sound quality, and pays artists more than what competing platforms pay. Music is streamed at 1411 kilobytes per second, which is near-CD quality, beating out Spotify whose streams range from 96 to 320 kbps.