Tidal: A New Music Streaming Service Launched By Jay Z And Other Artists
Tidal, a new music streaming service, was launched on Monday, March 30. Musician Jay Z is said to have bought Tidal for $56 million before persuading many of his friends in the business to be part of the first-ever artist owned streaming service, according to the New York Times.
During the news conference held in New York, singer Alicia Keys served as the spokesperson to explain how the service will work. Jay Z did not speak, but he allowed Keys to explain that Tidal will have no free subscription. Instead, the music streaming service will have two levels of subscriptions available to the public. One subscription will be $10 a month for a compressed format, and the other subscription will be $20 a month for CD-quality streams.
The rap star and entertainment mogul said he knows Tidal might look like it is in competition with Spotify, Google, YouTube, Pandora, and other streaming companies. Spotify has 60 million users around the world, and 15 million of those users do pay a fee. Apple is expected to start a music streaming service later this year. However, Jay Z indicated that he is not in competition with any of the other streaming services. Tidal’s parent company, the Swedish technology firm Aspiro, has 512,000 paying users.
Jay Z said, “I just want to be an alternative. They don’t have to lose for me to win.”
Jay Z assures those who are considering subscribing to Tidal that his aim is to make available high-fidelity audio and exclusive content. The artists will own the majority of Tidal, and they will have direct control over their own work, according to CNN.
Some of the artists who have already signed up with Tidal include popular singers such as Rihanna, Kanye West, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Jack White, Alicia Keys, Jason Aldean, Daft Punk, Arcade Fire, Justin Bieber, Beyoncé, and of course, Jay Z. Like other streaming services, Tidal pays a small royalty each time a song is played. The artists who have joined Jay Z with Tidal have began helping him promote the service on social media by using the hashtag #TIDALforALL.A survey was conducted on NBC’s Today show, and out of 2,006 people surveyed, 72 percent said they would not want to pay anything for Tidal, 23 percent said they would pay $10, 5 percent said they would gladly pay whatever the artists thought was fair, and only 1 percent said they would pay $20.
Would you subscribe to Tidal? If so, would you pay the $10, or the $20 subscription rate?
[Image via Getty Images]
