Mariam Nihal
Saudi Gazette
The hashtag #TidalForAll was trending worldwide on Twitter on Monday.
But social media was not the only one fussing over the hype. Tidal
created a worldwide buzz prior to its carefully curated press
conference on Monday. Everyone was watching. Picture this: the biggest
names in the music industry lined up on worldstage announcing the
future of music.
16 artists including Daft Punk, Beyonce, Kanye West, Chris Martin,
Calvin Harris, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, deadmau5, Jack White, Jason
Aldean, J. Cole, Win Butler and Regine Chassagne, Alicia Keys, Usher
and Madonna are now the co-owners of the futuristic streaming device.
Every owner reportedly owns 3 percent equity in the company. The
genius of Jay Z has been working on this since he bought a Swedish
tech company two months ago for $56 million. “Right now they are
writing the story for us. We need to write the story for ourselves,”
Jay Z told a secret gathering of artists dubbed “The Avengers of
Music.” Tidal is available in 35 countries across the world and
subscribers can also listen to songs offline.
For $19.99 a month, subscribers will have access to millions of songs
and videos inculding exclusive content from artists in high fidelity.
A cheaper version of $9.99 offers regular sound quality. Tidal is in
the biggest arena of competition from Spotify, Beatport, Pandora and
I Heart Radio. Only Alicia Keys spoke to the press. “We stand before
you today, unified, introducing Tidal - the first ever artist owned
music entertainment platform. Our mission goes beyond commerce and
technology... our intent is to preserve music’s importance in our
lives. It’s the world’s true universal language.”
