Jay-Z held a press conference on Monday to announce his new Tidal subscription music service.
The mogul bought Sweden’s Tidal last month and is already set to turn it into an industry changer. The service, which costs $9.99 per month for standard service and $19.99 for hi-def sound, is not only a partnership with Sprint but also partly owned by fifteen other acts:
Alicia Keys
Win Butler & Régine Chassagne
Beyoncé
Calvin Harris
Chris Martin
Daft Punk
Jack White
Jason Aldean
J. Cole
Kanye West
Deadmau5
Madonna
Nicki Minaj
Rihanna
Usher
While the full details of their involvement have not been announced, rumor has it that each owns 3% of the company with Jay-Z, another unnamed individual and the record companies owning the rest.
Billboard has released an in-depth interview with Jay Z regarding his Tidal streaming service announcement.
The rap mogul sat with Billboard before the big announcement of his new music streaming service to talk about how he is rewriting the music business rulebook.
On what drove him to create Tidal, Jay-Z says, “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 goes on to explain the importance of valuing music saying, “Music is … imagine your life without music. It’s a very valuable part of your life, and like I said, that’s why we got in this business. It seems to be going the other way. People are not respecting the music, and [are] devaluing it and devaluing what it really means. 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.”
On competing with Spotify, “It’s not me against Spotify, but for us, you know, just the idea of the way we came into it, with everyone having equity, will open the dialogue – whether it be with the labels, the publishers or whoever.”
The real result of this new enterprise won’t be felt until sometime down the road. Even with pressure from artists and labels, Spotify is still firmly set with the freemium model, offering a free version with commercials while removing the ads and increasing audio quality for people willing to pay a premium.
Some artists have refused to let their music go to streaming services (AC/DC, the Beatles) while others have removed their music (Taylor Swift). It is possible, with a service by the artists and for the artists, that more and more may jump ship, pulling their music from any free sites.
The real future danger, though, comes with the fragmentation of the artists. Right now, even if there wasn’t a free Spotify, the people who subscribe would have access to about 99% of music currently in release. As more services start up, especially those associated directly with artists and/or labels, could we see more-and-more exclusive agreements?
When HBO first came on the air, it was the only game in town. For many years, almost any movie that was released ended up on the service. Then along came Showtime and, all of a sudden, each network started signing exclusive deals for packages of films. With the addition of The Movie Channel, Starz, etc., it became necessary for a movie lover to subscribe to multiple premium channels to see the full spectrum of movies put out by the studios.
This is what could happen to music and it might bring the streaming concept down. People are at the end of their ropes and budgets when it comes to entertainment and disposable income. The trend, especially among young people, in cutting the cord from cable and going to straight streaming and the practice is picking up steam. It is questionable whether they are going to be willing to take on multiple new costs when they are already rejecting the industry norm.
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