AliceAt the initial launch, joining Jay Z on stage were an impressive roundup of Tidal ‘co-owners’, including Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Kanye West, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna and Usher, who came together to spread Tidal’s message.
After shelling out $56 million on the music streaming service, it was time for Hov to unveil his latest acquisition’s new look at the #TIDALforALL event – which apparently involves a lot of blue if his powerful friends’ Twitter pages are anything to go by.
The beginning of a new era?
During the launch, apparent spokesperson Alicia Keys managed to keep a straight face whilst declaring that this was; “a moment that will forever change the course of music history,” and that Tidal users will, “discover music that will become the soundtrack for the rest of our lives.”
Big promises for a music streaming service to make, but you only had to glance at the crème de la crème of the music industry on stage to see how seriously they were taking it.
Tidal is the first ever artist-owned global music and entertainment platform, aiming to; “create a better service and a better experience for both fans and artists.”
So what makes this a beginning of a new era?
After taking the audience through ‘an audio-visual journey through the history of music’, Tidal’s Vania Schlogel was thrilled to introduce us to ‘the future of music’.
“We’re here today to offer something different,” she announced. “We’re here to launch a platform owned by artists that will continue to evolve over time. A platform as dynamic as the artists behind it. This is all in addition to CD quality sound, video, exclusive editorial content and full offline capabilities, among other exciting features.”
Hoping to lure music fans away from rival Spotify, Tidal’s ‘co-owners’ promise to provide exclusive content, including studio sessions and demo tracks, while giving them new ways to communicate with fans, making it likely that stars such as Beyoncé, Madonna and Rihanna will release Tidal-exclusive content before making material available for wider release.
There has been no comment on whether Tidal artists will stream exclusively on the streaming service.
This is what Jay Z must have meant when he vowed to “change the status quo, to re-establish the value of music and importantly, to create a place that brings artists and fans together.”
Audio Quality
Although skimmed over at the launch, a big selling point for Tidal lies in its high-definition lossless audio quality, even inviting you to hear the difference on its website by comparing tracks.
Not forgetting the cost: Tidal offers access to its library of 25 million-plus tracks, 75,000 music videos and curated editorial articles, features and interviews – ad-free and available for a monthly subscription of £9.99 or £19.99 for its Premium and HiFi services, respectively.
Tidal Premium offers subscribers standard sound quality, high definition music videos and ‘expertly curated’ editorial, while HiFi offers the same, only boasting lossless high fidelity sound quality instead of standard – both have a 30 day free trial period.
Available across iOS and Android devices, as well as in web browser and desktop players, Tidal claims to stream at more than four times the bit rate of competitive services. That means you, Spotify. (#TIDALforALL vs. music for everyone, anyone?)
Spotify is currently free (if you don’t mind the ad interruptions), or is costed at Unlimited at £4.99 per month and Premium at £9.99.
Controversy
After recently removing her entire back catalogue from Spotify, Taylor Swift explained that she is; “not willing to contribute my life’s work to an experiment that I don’t feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists, and creators of this music. I just don’t agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no value and should be free.”
With Tidal, Jay Z plans to remedy this by making joining the service worthwhile for ‘co-owner’ artists, in addition to their equity stake.
Some artists are reportedly being promised double the standard streaming royalties for their music.
“We didn’t like the direction music was going and thought maybe we could get in and strike an honest blow,” Jay Z told Billboard.
“Will artists make more money? Even if it means less profit for our bottom line, absolutely. That’s easy for us. We can do that. Less profit for our bottom line, more money for the artist; fantastic.”
Here is where the presentation got interesting. Speaking on Jay Z’s behalf, Alicia Keys compared the gathering to a graduation and stated that Tidal co-owners; “have joined with Tidal for the preservation of an industry and to deliver music and experiences in a way that is best for the consumer. That is why Tidal is dedicated to cultivating a sound business enterprise that promotes the health and sustainability of our art and our industry around the
world.”
Comments such as Vania’s; “every great movement has been started by a few brave people who band together for a common cause,” comment have not gained much sympathy online, with many taking to social media to mock the wealthy artists for appearing to want to squeeze more money from the public.
Madonna took to Twitter to insist that; “Tidal is not about consumption and greed! It is about protecting an art form that is beloved to all of us.”
Still, there’s no such thing as bad publicity and only time will tell to see if an artist-owned music streaming service can deliver on what it promises.
UPDATE: DJ Skee has announced that Jay Z and Beyonce are working on a joint album which will be released on Tidal – a clever move guaranteed to get consumers to fork out the subscription fee. It has not yet been revealed whether the new material will eventually make its way onto other platforms.
Watch DJ Skee comment on this new development at the video at the end of the article.
“I first reported last year that Jay Z and Beyonce were working on a joint album, which by the way is finally nearing completion, and my sources are saying it will be released exclusively on Tidal,” DJ Skee says in the most recent episode of SKEE TV.
After a flurry of downloads following the initial launch event, in April 2015 Tidal has dropped out of the top 700 apps on iPhone in the US and no longer sits in the top 500 of the iOS and Google Play Store charts in the UK. Soon after this was announced, eagle-eyed Twitter viewers noticed that Kanye West has removed all tweets pledging his support for the streaming service.
In a bid to deliver on Tidal’s promises, Jay Z is now using the service to stream an exclusive video for his 2012 song Glory. The video features a live orchestral rehearsal version of the song, written to celebrate the birth of his and Beyonce’s daughter, Blue Ivy. The video uses footage from the rehearsal sessions for Jay Z’s 2012 benefit concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
Jay Z has since removed his 1996 album Reasonable Doubt from Spotify, with it appearing on Tidal instead. The rest of his back catalogue remains on Spotify for the moment.
After recently pulling her entire back catalogue from Spotify, Taylor Swift’s albums, with the exception of 1989, have also appeared on Tidal.
CE Pro Europe has selected a few of the best of the Internet’s reactions on the next page.
• “Tidal – a classic case of the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. As if these celebs don’t have enough money, now they’ve created a streaming service that benefits them and only them. If the proceeds went to charity I may consider it.”
• “Attempting to disguise a commercial venture as a philanthropic endeavour.”
• “They aren’t living in the real world. When you can’t afford dinner then maybe I’ll feel sorry for all your ‘hardship’. Until then, just no.”
• “The only thing that worries me is that if more streaming services pop up with fenced-in exclusive content it will ruin the brilliance of the original idea. I love Spotify – it has all the music I want in one place all the time. If it
becomes fragmented, then it’s rubbish. Taylor Swift’s noble stance seems a little suspect now too.”
• “YouTube, Spotify, etc. ALL of these revenue streams pay a pittance to the talent. How do you expect artists to truly be able to focus and make great art if they have to wash dishes for a living or work in a menial office job to keep the lights on? It is my understanding that Tidal is going to be a streaming service that ACTUALLY gives a decent percentage back to the contributing artist. Isn’t that what we want? Our favourite artists to be able to make a living doing what they love? If I’m wrong, I stand corrected, but it is my understanding that Tidal will be majority owned by artists in order to give artists more control over what they are paid.”
• “Most of the artists associated with this venture own or part own record labels in their own right so it wont just include their own music, it will – I’m sure – include the music of the artists they represent – most of whom are young, fresh, new artists who would undoubtedly be ripped off by ‘fans’ downloading for free if they weren’t being ripped off by the more experienced artists they are being represented by.”
• “Something very wrong with presenting capitalistic ventures like #TIDALforALL as social justice movements.”
More on Tidal…
Jay Z Wins Bid For Music Streaming Company Aspiro
Led Zeppelin Back Catalogue Joins TIDAL
Tidal Announces Integration With First 16 Home Audio Brands
