Jay Z launches first artist-owned music streaming service ‘Tidal’ to rival Spotify

Jay Z launches first artist-owned music streaming service ‘Tidal’ to rival Spotify

Jay Z and a number of his A-list music friends hope new streaming service will provide Spotify with legitimate competition.

Spotify’s user base has continued to grow rapidly since the application’s release nearly a decade ago, but rapper and business mogul Jay Z is ready to provide the music streaming powerhouse with its first true challenger. In a press conference on Monday night, Jay Z and several of his A-list friends announced his plans to relaunch Tidal, a streaming service which is now being described as “the first artist-owned global music and entertainment platform.”

Spotify reached 15 million paid subscribers last January, prompting Apple and YouTube to announce plans to release their own streaming services in the near future. Norwegian firm Aspiro’s streaming service Tidal aimed to provide Spotify with competition upon its release last October, and a company controlled by Jay Z acquired the site for $56 million in March in an attempt to provide artists with a way to change the direction of music streaming and make more money.

“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.”

Tidal will reportedly offer exclusive music from prominent artists, including studio sessions and demo tracks. Before Jay Z’s press conference, Kanye West took to Twitter to tell fans that Tidal can “turn the tide and make music history,” and advised his followers to turn their profile pictures blue in support of the service. A number of award-winning musicians including Beyoncé, Deadmau5, Nicki Minaj and Jack White followed West’s instructions, replacing their Twitter profile pictures with blank blue images and tweeting “#TIDALforALL.” Alicia Keys promised the service will offer a “better experience for both fans and artists,” and “deliver exclusive experiences that cannot be found anywhere else.”

After Taylor Swift pulled her music from Spotify earlier this year and Universal Music Group pressured the service to convert more free users into paying subscribers, an increasing number of artists and labels have been voicing their concerns about the direction of music streaming. Even though Tidal and the upcoming services from Apple and YouTube threaten to reduce Spotify’s user base, the application’s head of communications and public policy, Jonathan Prince, isn’t concerned for its future.

“We continue to grow exponentially by delivering a great product for our users and the artists they love,” said Prince. “Recent releases by Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Madonna and others show how critical it is for artists and labels to be on Spotify for their own success.”

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