Mikey Campbell
Following Monday's reveal of Jay Z's upcoming music service Tidal, the rap star revealed he was in talks with Beats cofounder and current Apple exec Jimmy Iovine over potentially collaborating on the project.
In an interview with Billboard, Jay Z said he spoke with Iovine, a music recording industry titan, about potentially joining forces to help get Tidal off the ground. The argument, like the goal for Tidal, is that his new service comes to the aid of musicians disenfranchised by current streaming service contracts.
"My thing with Jimmy is, 'Listen, Jimmy; you're Jimmy Iovine, and you're Apple, and truthfully, you're great. You guys are going to do great things with Beats, but ... you know, I don't have to lose in order for you guys to win, and let's just remember that,'" Jay Z told the publication. "Again, I'm not angry. I actually told him, 'Yo, you should be helping me. This is for the artist. These are people that you supported your whole life. You know, this is good.'
Tidal is one of two streaming service arms created by Swedish tech company Aspiro, which was purchased in January by an investment entity backed by Jay Z for a reported $56 million. Set to relaunch later today, Tidal looks to level the playing field for musicians, many of whom are unhappy with streaming music deals arranged by music labels.
Iovine supposedly attempted to lure away A-list artists that have since been announced as first-tier Tidal backers by offering better up front payouts.
Apple is widely expected to launch a redesigned and rebranded Beats Music in the coming months. Much like Tidal, Apple's service will reportedly be subscription based, but is thought to rely on a traditional song royalty model that sees labels get a taste of proceeds on per-play basis. Tidal, on the other hand, gives equity stake to first-tier artists like Kanye West, Daft Punk, Beyonce, Rhianna, Coldplay, Calvin Harris, Madonna and more.
"I think that's just his competitive nature, and I don't know if he's looking at the bigger picture: That it's not about me and it's not about him; it's about the future of the music business," Jay Z said.
The rap idol hopes Tidal's new model will drive more direct compensation from streaming plays, while serving as a catalyst for artist experimentation. Not beholden to record labels, musicians would be free to create almost anything they desire. For example, artists could break conventional format and release 18-minute songs, or meld genres into completely new hybrids, testing for audience response.
In addition to a totally new compensation method, Tidal differentiates from other streaming music providers by offering video and a special pricing tier for audiophiles seeking high-resolution playback.
Tidal is scheduled to relaunch later today priced at $9.99 per month for normal quality streams, while the high-resolution service starts at $19.99 per month.
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I don't know if Jay-Z is naive, or whether he's full of it. Possibly some of both. It's hard to believe that he's "only" doing it for the artists. I'm sure he expects to make a fair amount of money from this. By the way, I've spoken to the CEO of Tidal several months ago. His idea is/was to get young people to subscribe to this so that they could get their feet in the water of high quality sound. Frankly, I told him that it wouldn't work. They're charging $20, or more, a month for this. I don't know how many young people will be willing, or even able, to pay that much. I don't know if Jay-Z will be lowering the price, but from what they told me, they can't make a profit on a lower price than that. The big thing about Tidal is the fact that they stream at 16/44.1 uncompressed. That takes a lot of bandwidth. By the way, the service has been working for a time. I do have a friend who subscribes, but he's 67, not a young person. So for audiophiles, this may be a good thing, and the complaints are that everyone compresses the music. But this is not a major audience.
"What's that? You want STEREO? Oh well that's $20 a month ..."
[quote name="melgross" url="/t/185482/jay-z-asked-apples-jimmy-iovine-to-collaborate-on-revolutionary-streaming-platform-tidal#post_2701004"]. I don't know if Jay-Z will be lowering the price, but from what they told me, they can't make a profit on a lower price than that. .[/quote] From the article: "Tidal is scheduled to relaunch later today priced at $9.99 per month for normal quality streams, while a high-resolution service starts at $19.99 per month." From another article on this "Alicia Keys revealed that a lineup of artists, including Jay Z, Kanye West, Jack White, Deadmau5, Daft Punk, Usher and many others, are all part owners in the endeavor."
[quote name="Gatorguy" url="/t/185482/jay-z-asked-apples-jimmy-iovine-to-collaborate-on-revolutionary-streaming-platform-tidal#post_2701007"] From the article: "Tidal is scheduled to relaunch later today priced at $9.99 per month for normal quality streams, while a high-resolution service starts at $19.99 per month." From another article on this "Alicia Keys revealed that a lineup of artists, including Jay Z, Kanye West, Jack White, Deadmau5, Daft Punk, Usher and many others, are all part owners in the endeavor."[/quote] Yes, I read that. But what I said is that they're main selling point is the uncompressed stream. Without that, they are nothing more than an unknown streaming service with nothing to offer that's better than any other service, and that the uncompressed service has already been running. I know this for a fact. They are offering the cheap service because, as I told the CEO, there is no major market for the service they started out with, they weren't planning to offer a compressed service at lower rates. This is new. What they're doing now, is because they can't make money on a price that's lower than $20 a month serving uncompressed music. The reason they sold out is because they haven't enough money to do what they wanted to do. This is a small company.
Lol. Jay z justifying charging more. Go away jay. Producers and consumers alike both realize you must have a happy medium. I'm not supporting an artist who doesn't want to support me. Apple saved the music industry with the .99/song model vs. straight theft. But then you have jay z who wants to say "thanks" his own way.