Music streaming service Tidal faces tough sell in getting customers to pay
Despite pitches from pop music's A-list, millionaire musicians asking to be paid for what Spotify does for free rubs many fans the wrong way
In New York City, some of the most famous, wealthy musicians the world has ever known gathered to make planet earth an offer they thought it couldn't refuse.
The offer came not from unknown musicians playing covers at open-mike nights, but from Jay Z, Beyonce, Rihanna, Madonna, Jack White, Kanye West and Daft Punk. This was pop music's A-list - artists making millions creating the soundtrack to lives of billions of people.
Their offer? Pay us more.
What they're selling is Tidal, a streaming service developed by Jay Z, which would do pretty much what Spotify does free of charge. But, at US$10-per-month for compressed formats and US$20-per-month for CD-quality streams, Tidal would - in plans only vaguely articulated so far - be owned by artists who get shares in the company in exchange for granting it the exclusive right to play their music.
The luminaries assembled on Monday offered something Spotify didn't: a moral imperative.
"People are not respecting the music, and [are] devaluing it and devaluing what it really means," Jay Z said, as reported. "People really feel like music is free, but will pay [US] $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."
