Rap superstar and business mogul Jay Z took the stage on March 30, Monday, with a stable of powerful musicians like Madonna, Jack White, Kanye West, Rihanna, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Daft Punk, and Coldplay's Chris Martin to finally announce the re-launching of a very ambitious endeavor in the music industry.
The music streaming service that Jay Z co-owned is coined Tidal. It is dubbed as a whole new era for the music industry, but since its re-release, the question of what era was still a debate. In addition, Tidal is also being questioned on who will trully benefit from it, the artists or the fans?
According to Wired, Tidal is the first of its kind to offer a high-fidelity audio/video streaming as well as a wide and extensive library of songs that are curated by the artists themselves. However, by giving the artists a more control on the content, the exclusivity of the sound is somewhat walled to those who are willing to $20 every month, which is a bit pricy, compared to those $10 streaming sites that are currently in the market. With this in place, critics and users alike believes that Tidal is leaning more on the artists rather than its patrons.
Tidal is clearly has it's crosshair on other streaming services like Spotify and it is also understood that musicians don't get the best returns when it comes to streaming, like what happened to Taylor Swift last year in Spotify.
In addition, Digital Music said that Jay Z is allegedly showering investors with tons of cash and huge equity stakes to join him and artists were also being promised double the standard streaming royalties for their music.