Jay-Z Defends Tidal Against Alleged Big Co-ops Smear Campaign Against His Startup
Jay-Z Defends Tidal Against Claims Of Under Paid Artists
Jay-Z a renowned United States rap mogul bought Tidal’s parent company, Aspire at a price tag of $56m (Aspiro was a Swedish company). This was on the backdrop of a fast-growing streaming services from companies such as Spotify, Deezer and Rhapsody, which gives users an unlimited on-demand music streaming.
March 30th, 2015, the rapper cum entrepreneur launched a redesigned Tidal to the public at an event held in New York that saw some of the biggest names in the industry make an appearance. Including Alicia Keys, Usher, Madonna, Kanye West, Daft Punk, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj and of course Mrs. Carter – Beyoncé Knowles.
During the occasion, the high profile collection of artists pitched the new startup streaming services, as their way of taking control of the future of music streaming. One notable critic of the already established streaming business, Taylor Swift said that the market leader Spotify does not offer sufficient compensation.
However, their sentiments were not echoed by all artists. Take, for instance, the British band Mumford and Sons who were dismayed by Tidal’s launch, especially when seeing big names in the industry complaining about pay.
In reaction to the claims of inadequate compensation to artists by Tidal, Jay-Z wrote on one of the volley messages on Twitter: “We are here for the long haul. Please give us a chance to grow and get better.”
In what would seem to be directed at the unnamed ‘big companies’ spending millions of dollars on smear campaign against Tidal. Jay-Z had the following to say:
“Tidal pays (a) 75 percent royalty rate to ALL artists, writers and producers – not just the founding members on stage.” Jay-Z further said that independent artists will keep up to 100 percent if they opted to work directly with Tidal.
Jay-Z further said that Tidal is targeting the whole global markets, by saying that his cousin was in Nigeria looking for discover new talent.
According to monitoring service, App Annie, Tidal came in at number 1,027 among the most-downloaded app iTunes across North America. It was number 61 when ranked under most downloaded music apps.
The services users larger and higher-quality file sizes compared to the current industry leader, Spotify. However, unlike its rival, Tidal does not have any free level subscriptions. The platform also gives exclusive materials, such as the streaming of Jack White’s acoustic tour’s final concert.
