Jay Z is set to relaunch his newly acquired music streaming service and judging by the backing on social media it looks like he has signed special deals with some of music's biggest stars including Beyonce, Rihanna, Madonna, Coldplay and Kanye West.
Taylor Swift, who famously pulled her albums from Spotify last year, made her back catalog available on Tidal last week and now some of the biggest names in music are turning their Twitter profile pictures to a blue square and tweeting under #TIDALforAll ahead of the relaunch. Tidal is already available in the U.S. and the U.K., but was purchased by Jay Z earlier in March and the rapper is expected to relaunch the service at a press conference scheduled for 5 p.m. Eastern time.
Music streaming services have been widely criticized for not rewarding artists enough and according to Forbes, Jay Z has ambitions to allow featured artists to reap more rewards than the current corporate streaming model.
Swedish blog Breakit reported on March 29 that Tidal has agreed to deals that big name artists get first releases of tracks ahead of any other digital streaming services. Unlike Swift and others who have pulled their music from Spotify altogether the report suggests that these artists would also make their music available on other platforms after a time.
There's a pretty good chance that the artists taking part in the coordinated #TIDALforAll Twitter campaign have signed some sort of new deal with Tidal. Tidal differentiates itself from the likes of Spotify and Deezer by offering higher definition streams than its competitors. As a result there is no free Tidal service. Monthly subscriptions cost $19.99, or double what the competition is charging. There could therefore be some leeway for Jay Z to pay higher royalties to Tidal artists.
Together, we can turn the tide and make music history. Start by turning your profile picture blue. #TIDALforALL
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) March 30, 2015
According to Showbiz411, Jay Z held a meeting with a host of A-list musicians before the Grammy Awards in February. The supposed attendees of that meeting, Madonna, Kanye West, Daft Punk, Nikki Minaj, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Jack White and, of course, Jay Z's wife Beyonce have all been taking part in the Tidal Twitter campaign which started at midnight EST on March 30.
Jay Z first announced his $56 million purchase of Aspiro, the parent company of Tidal in Jan. 2015. However, earlier this month the deal looked like it was in jeopardy when minority shareholders tried to block it, but the deal eventually was confirmed on March 11.
Photo: Ethan Miller | Getty Images
