Jay Z's "Tidal" Streaming Service Launches at $9.99 or $19.99/month; NO free ad-supported plan

[Hersh]

*waits for modded apk*

 

[Hersh]

im assuming artist negotiate payment and stake-- depending on status.

 

[jerome]

streaming business made more money than album sales this past year. good move hov

 

[Rich Spirit]

I would think that streaming high quality songs will eat up people's data usage.

T-Mobile doesn't even count data usage when you stream on Spotify

 

[JordanWearinThe45]

At a press conference in New York City this afternoon, Jay Z and a huge group of musical stars took the stage to officially relaunch TIDAL, the streaming music service he recently acquired as part of a $56 million deal. The rallying cry was a service that would "turn the tide" and restore the value to music by launching a service owned by artists. Coldplay, Rihanna, Daft Punk, Alicia Keys, Calvin Harris, Jack White, Madonna, Usher, Arcade Fire, Deadmau5, and Beyoncé joined Jay Z in the owners circle. He is reportedly offering millions of dollars and an equity stake to artists who join him.

Turn the tide against what exactly? The unspoken enemies are services like Spotify that offer streaming music for free, supported by advertising. Many artists have accused it of paying only a pittance for the rights to stream their music. TIDAL, by contrast, has promised to pay double the standard streaming royalties, a promise it confirmed with The Verge this afternoon. It's framing itself as a sort of United Artists for the streaming era, a business built in opposition to tech companies that traffic in ads. That sounds like a huge difference, but of course there are some caveats.

Before today, that premium tier was the only one TIDAL offered. This morning it introduced a $9.99 service with standard definition audio, which will pay just the standard royalty rates. The double royalties only get paid on streams for customers who sign up for the $19.99 plan, which promises higher quality audio files, but is twice the cost of a typical Spotify subscription. In other words TIDAL is bound by the same economics as its competitors, but it choose to move up the food chain, away from the free ad-supported tier that pay the least per stream.

The larger argument is over what will be a better business in the long run. Spotify has always argued that offering a free tier helps to build the biggest audience, and that over time more of those people will switch to the paid version. It has gotten to more than 60 million customers this way, 15 million of whom pay. Tidal, by contrast, has only around 17,000 paying subscribers.

It's easy to understand artists' frustration and skepticism. The US music industry generates roughly half the annual revenue it did back in 1999. And while there are tens of millions of people listening to Spotify, the revenue from ad supported streaming is smaller than that generated by sales of vinyl records.

The simple truth remains, however, that streaming music is the industry's best bet for growth. Artists seem to grasp that, but want to make sure that it's paid streaming, where the economics are better for them. That business now generates more money than CDs.

The battle over how best to build the music business — and best for whom — is going to get very heated over the next year. Taylor Swift's departure from Spotify was a big moment, and TIDAL's move to capture exclusives and better reward artists is another. And behind most of these artists are record labels who often negotiate the deals with streaming services and write the checks for the artists only after taking their cut. Where those power players fit into this new "artist owned" service isn't clear, but they often have control over where an artist's music can appear. In an interview with Billboard, Jay Z acknowledged that many label executives were suspicious of what he was attempting to do with TIDAL.

The elephant in the room is Apple, which has plans to relaunch both its Beats streaming service and to integrate it with the iTunes music store. Apple reportedly also plans to eliminate the option of a free tier. If there is any company on earth that can afford to pay a premium to woo artists and win exclusives, it would be the world's richest and most profitable corporation.

Thats DOPE AS fukk for the artists.

 

[Formerly known as...]

If for example Taylor Swift releases her next album direct to Tidal first then this could be huge.

 

[Brooklynzson]

I thought it was $9.99, this shyt says $12.99

 

[Kamikaze Revy]

Jay-Z's?

 

[AkaDemiK]

just download ya albums in flac format n call it a day brehs

 

[Leasy]

I can actually see artists forcing their labels to only publish their muse on Tidal.

 

[Mr. Manhattan]

I'll stick to spotify

 

[GoldenGlove]

just download ya albums in flac format n call it a day brehs

How big are those downloads though?

 

[NoMorePie]

People still pay for music in 2015?

 

[ShoGun Of Harlem]

oh wait so jay and be aint real because you know they are rich and famous? You know bill gates is rich and famous yet you probalby have used a PC running windows and MS office. so please STOP IT.

lol at REAL black owned business. if you really believe what you say the black community is more lost then i first thought. good grief.

lastly its not about what they do for the black community on a charity level. LEARN GROUP ECONOMICS. their money staying in mostly black hands, also meaning when other black artist sign on the site, they may not get jerked and worked over like they do when they work for others. This can keep and bring in more dollars to the black community as a whole. everything isnt always about how much money some celeb is spending in the hood. this is deeper then that.

you know Bill Gates is and has already donated 90% of his fortune to charities? The Bill Gates comparison is terrible and the poster you're quoting is correct, Jay and Beyonce don't give a fukk about you. They want your money and that's it as you can see with these ridiculous price to barely listen to high quality music that isn't noticeable unless you got $500 headphone.

 

[rapbeats]

you know Bill Gates is and has already donated 90% of his fortune to charities? The Bill Gates comparison is terrible and the poster you're quoting is correct, Jay and Beyonce don't give a fukk about you. They want your money and that's it as you can see with these ridiculous price to barely listen to high quality music that isn't noticeable unless you got $500 headphone.

stop it. Bill gates retired and started really going Ham on the charity side. sure he always gave away money. But most people didnt know what he was doing. and i sure as hell know most people 20 and under could care less unless they were specificially looking for a bill gates scholly. everyone was using that white man's products and not saying a word. but when a black man does it. here comes to extra LIP. pathetic.