This afternoon Jay Z formally launched his new streaming music service TIDAL with an all star event in New York City. As it turns out Jay Z is merely a co owner Arcade Fire s Win Butler and R gine Chassagne Kanye West Jack White Daft Punk Beyonc Chris Martin of Coldplay Rihanna Madonna also have ownership interests in TIDAL.
All these artists were at hand for today s event and showed their commitment by signing a declaration on stage.
TIDAL is described as a platform owned by artists with the goal to re establish the value of music. Speaking on behalf of the group Alicia Keys explained We want to create a better service and experience for fans and artists. Our mission goes beyond commerce and technology.
Update Jay Z spoke to Billboard about his vision for TIDAL. Read below.
A video proceeding the event featured footage from a recent summit in which the owners of TIDAL gathered to discuss their vision. Daft Punk described the group as the Avengers of Music.
As previously reported TIDAL offers two paid subscription options $19.99 a month for high fidelity audio and $9.99 for standard quality audio. TIDAL can be streamed on the web and downloaded for iOS and Android devices.
It s reported that TIDAL s owners will exclusively release their music through the platform but that has yet to be confirmed.
Replay the event below.
Update Jay Z spoke to Billboard about his vision for TIDAL. We didn t like the direction music was going and thought maybe we could get in and strike an honest blow and if you know the very least we did was make people wake up and try to improve the free vs. paid system and promote fair trade then it would be a win for us anyway he explained.
People are not respecting the music and are devaluing it and devaluing what it really means Jay Z added. People really feel like music is free but will pay $6 for water. You can drink water free out of the tap and it s good water. But they re OK paying for it. It s just the mind set right now.
He said the overriding goal is to ensure artists are properly compensated for your work and not just the owners each of whom control a 3 percent stake in the company will reap the benefits. For someone like me I can go on tour. But what about the people working on the record the content creators and not just the artists If they re not being compensated properly then I think we ll lose some writers and producers and people like that who depend on fair trade. Some would probably have to take another job and I think we ll lose some great writers in the process. Is it fair No. If you put in work everyone else you go to work you get paid. That s fair trade. It s what our country is built on.
Jay Z also said he hopes TIDAL will inspire artists to take more risks creatively. He explained Artists come here and start making songs 18 minutes long or whatever. I know this is going to sound crazy but maybe they start attempting to make a Like a Rolling Stone you know a song that doesn t have a recognizable hook but is still considered one of the greatest songs of all time the freedom that this platform will allow art to flourish here
And while he would not confirm it outright he did tease TIDAL acquiring exclusive content from artists. Anything they want to offer you know just be as creative as possible that s the only charge really. Make it look really good and make everyone that consumes it think Man I got something really great. Treat the people with respect make it memorable.
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