Jay Z unveiled TIDAL, the streaming service he bought earlier this year for $56 million, on Monday. He relaunched the service with a display of pageantry, as Madonna, Beyonce, Daft Punk, Rihanna and others stood on a stage at Skylight at Moynihan Station in New York City.
The event was preceded by a countdown clock on the TIDAL site and several of the artists who showed up in person tweeted their support with the hashtag #TIDALforALL. Even Kanye West, who didn’t attend the event, tweeted support for the service.
What makes TIDAL different from other streaming services like Spotify is that it hopes to provide higher quality streams of songs. You can pay $9.99/month for the service, or go up to $19.99/month to access Lossless High Fidelity sound. In addition, the service is partly owned by the artists who showed up.
Rolling Stone reports that some of the other famous faces at the event included Alicia Keys, members of Arcade Fire, J. Cole, Jack White, Usher, Deadmau5, Nicki Minaj and Usher. Calvin Harris and Coldplay singer Chris Martin appeared via video.
The only one who spoke to the audience was Keys. Everyone else just stood on the stage to show that they backed TIDAL. Even Jay Z didn’t say anything.
“We come together before you on this day...with one voice in unity in the hopes that today will be a moment that will forever change the course of music history,” Keys said. “Our goal is simple: We want to create a better service and a better experience for both fans and artists, and that is our promise to the world.”
However, Jay Z did tell The New York Times in an interview that he believes that the current streaming system is “criminal” for artists. TIDAL does pay artists a royalty fee each time a song is played, but executive Vania Schlogel didn’t give any further details.
“Everyone knows that the pay system is unfair to artists,” Jay Z told the Times. “Everywhere else, everyone gets compensated for their work. Music is everywhere — you consume it every day, everywhere you go. The content creator should be compensated. It’s only fair.”
You can already sign up for TIDAL here.
image courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com
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