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Tidal for All? Jay Z Enlists Celebs to Promote New $20 Streaming Service

Jay Z has enlisted a cavalcade of high-profile musicians to help him convince music lovers that they want to spent $240 per year on a streaming service. You might have noticed that some of your favori...
Tidal for All? Jay Z Enlists Celebs to Promote New $20 Streaming Service
Written by Josh Wolford
  • Jay Z has enlisted a cavalcade of high-profile musicians to help him convince music lovers that they want to spent $240 per year on a streaming service.

    You might have noticed that some of your favorite artists’ social media profiles have gone light blue, and the reason for that is a new music streaming service called Tidal. It’s not exactly new new, as it’s been around for a little while. But the service is gearing up for a big relaunch on Monday – at about 5pm EST according to a countdown on the official site.

    Tidal is billed as “the first music streaming service that combines the best High Fidelity sound quality, High Definition music videos and expertly Curated Editorial.” High-quality, lossless FLAC music is the major selling point of Tidal from the consumer standpoint, and more fairness in how they’re paid for streams is the main selling point from the artists’ standpoint. As you can see, Tidal’s marketing campaign is heavy on the “revolution” imagery.

    Why Jay Z? He acquired Swedish company Aspiro for $56 million, and with that came its Tidal music service. What Jay Z has done is enlist a rather impressive bunch of celebrities to jump on board the new service. Here’s a handful of said artists:

    Tidal recently became the exclusive place to stream Taylor Swift’s catalog. You may recall the singer pulled her music from Spotify this past November, saying she “just doesn’t agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no value and should be free.”

    Tidal has no free tier. It’s $19.99 per month, twice the cost of Spotify premium. And the whole “join the revolution” angle is prompting some negative feedback online:

    As of now, Tidal only boasts about 17,000 paying subscribers. There’s a lot of star power behind this new venture, but selling people on a $20 per month streaming service with no free option isn’t going to be easy. In the end, it will come down to just how exclusive the content is on Tidal. Stay tuned.

    UPDATE: Looks like Tidal has cut its subscription fee in half:

    Image via sashimomura, Wikimedia Commons

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