Jay Z Launches Tidal, His New Streaming Service
Tidal crew
Why do we need another streaming service? There are so many already and I can’t see any good reason to subscribe to the new Jay Z ‘s Tidal service. I use Spotify for fee, I tolerate the ads once in a while, but come on, it’s free! On the contrary, Tidal, which was just purchased by the rapper a few weeks ago, will have a basic service at $9.99 per month offering current industry-standard streaming fidelity with high-definition music videos, and a second service at $19.99 offering lossless, CD-quality streaming, HD videos and access to the service’s original editorial products. That’s quite expansive for listening to Taylor Swift! Because that’s the only difference I see with Spotify as I am never gonna pay 20 bucks to Jay Z to listen to music I either own (Arcade Fire, Jack White) or don’t care about (Kanye West, Beyonce and Madonna).
Tidal is described as ‘the first music streaming service that combines the best high fidelity sound quality, high definition music videos and expertly curated editorial.’ But the difference between Tidal and Spotify is that Tidal is own by artists and a bunch of famous artists. Alicia Keys, Rihanna, Jason Aldean, Chris Martin, Arcade Fire, J. Cole, Madonna, Usher, Nicki Minaj, Deadmau5, Daft Punk, Jack White, Beyoncé, Jay Z,… held a press conference to launch Tidal on Monday, followed a crazy talk by Alicia Keys, who basically didn’t teach me anything about the financial whereabouts of Tidal, but quoted Nietzsche.
Jay Z recently purchased the streaming service for some $56 million and he wants to make it as a competitor to Spotify, or Rdio. Alicia called it the ‘beginning of a whole new era’,… but for whom exactly? A new era for Jay Z and Madonna to make even more money? What’s new exactly? A new sound? a better listening experience? Each time they say this and it is always the same thing for me, I can’t tell the difference and neither can you.
They still haven’t explained anything. Do all these artists own an equal share of Tidal? Or does Jay Z own most of it? If you are an independent artist streaming on Tidal, will you get more money from Tidal than from Spotify? Or is it only good for Tay and Bey? What are the deals with the labels? Is this a cult? Come on jay Z, I want answers!
