JAY Z Opens Up About Tidal, Competition & The Future Of Music

tidal3

JAY Z just launched TIDAL to the public with the help of his business partners, some of which include Madonna, Beyonce, Kanye West, Daft Punk, Alicia Keys, J. Cole, Chris Martin, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Usher and more. The press conference offered their point of view on music and why TIDAL is changing the way people will consume the music, through high quality audio.

Although Shawn Carter was mum throughout the length of the live stream, he talked to Billboard prior to share his thoughts on why he went into this business venture. Not only did he explain why he’s not trying to compete with the likes of Spotify or Beats Music when it relaunches, he also talked about how he wants to make people see the value of music nowadays and make sure the right people get paid what they deserve.

You have a long-standing relationship with Jimmy Iovine. Have you been in contact with him since the news has started trickling out?

Yeah, of course. 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.” 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.”

Musicians have long complained that streaming has rendered music virtually worthless. It doesn’t sound like you’re solely driven by financial reasons, but also by a desire to reset the value proposition of music.

That’s correct, absolutely, and when I spoke to every single person involved that’s what I said. 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.

No additional details as far as who they’re partnering with on the phone carriers or audio companies were revealed, but he did say his main goal with TIDAL was to offer creativity to the content creators. He wants to help break the cyclical tide of the music business, in terms of how things are rolled out. The way songs are formatted to fit a certain time limit.

Whether people pay double for TIDAL than they already for streaming services out now is a different story, but Hov just wants to change the conversation and make them follow suit.

OS REWIND: JAY Z Formally Introduces New Streaming Service “TiDAL”

[Source]

  • Share this :
Comments