The release of Tidal, a Swedish music streaming service purchased by Jay Z, has lost its second top executive after only two months on the job. It's previous chief executive stepped down among a dozen other employees who have been fired. Tidal's subscription is $10 a month, with an upgrade available for $20 a month. Subscription to Tidal includes access to exclusive content from its artist co-owners, as well as high fidelity lossless audio, and the higher subscription cost results in a higher royalties to both the artists and the songwriters.
One of the largest concerns with the higher subscription costs is that it will bring about an increase in music piracy, among the backlash from other artists and fans alike has to do with the high prices keeping Tidal from being accessible to the masses.
Tidal boasts a total of 770,000 subscribers in stark contrast to the 20 million that Spotify has or the 80 million users that Pandora, the current dominant force in internet radio market, currently has. That being said, Tidal has a fairly large group of highly commercialized artists including Beyonce, Madonna, Kanye West, Jack White, and Daft Punk.
A criticism coming from less commercialized artists is that Tidal itself caters to artists already firmly in the foreground, as opposed to possibly boosting artists that have released great work, but received less recognition. Approximately 75% of members subscription fees are distributed to the record labels for individual artist and songwriter distribution. A majority of Tidal shares will be owned by its artists, adding to the criticism that Tidal is a way for already wealthy artists to increase their wealth.
Jay Z said, in defence of Tidal, that their higher fees will lead to more money for those working on the record, the content creators, and not just the artists. Jay Z stressed that without proper compensation they run the risk of losing some great writers and producers in the process. Overall Tidal was created and bought by Jay-Z to promote high fidelity, lossless audio for fans out there willing or able to pay the subscription fee, and those who want exclusive videos and pictures from some of their favorite artists.
- Devon Pyne for RAPstation.com
Tidal heats up live-stream competition
The release of Tidal, a Swedish music streaming service purchased by Jay Z, has lost its second top executive after only two months on the job. It's previous chief executive stepped down among a dozen other employees who have been fired. Tidal's subscription is $10 a month, with an upgrade available for $20 a month. Subscription to Tidal includes access to exclusive content from its artist co-owners, as well as high fidelity lossless audio, and the higher subscription cost results in a higher royalties to both the artists and the songwriters.
One of the largest concerns with the higher subscription costs is that it will bring about an increase in music piracy, among the backlash from other artists and fans alike has to do with the high prices keeping Tidal from being accessible to the masses.
Tidal boasts a total of 770,000 subscribers in stark contrast to the 20 million that Spotify has or the 80 million users that Pandora, the current dominant force in internet radio market, currently has. That being said, Tidal has a fairly large group of highly commercialized artists including Beyonce, Madonna, Kanye West, Jack White, and Daft Punk.
A criticism coming from less commercialized artists is that Tidal itself caters to artists already firmly in the foreground, as opposed to possibly boosting artists that have released great work, but received less recognition. Approximately 75% of members subscription fees are distributed to the record labels for individual artist and songwriter distribution. A majority of Tidal shares will be owned by its artists, adding to the criticism that Tidal is a way for already wealthy artists to increase their wealth.
Jay Z said, in defence of Tidal, that their higher fees will lead to more money for those working on the record, the content creators, and not just the artists. Jay Z stressed that without proper compensation they run the risk of losing some great writers and producers in the process. Overall Tidal was created and bought by Jay-Z to promote high fidelity, lossless audio for fans out there willing or able to pay the subscription fee, and those who want exclusive videos and pictures from some of their favorite artists.
- Devon Pyne for RAPstation.com
