7 of the 15 artists with an ownership stake in Jay Z’s troubled Tidal streaming music service may have their music pulled from it as a result of Jay Z failing to reach a music licencing agreement with Sony, which owns many of the streaming rights to the musicians in question.
Alicia Keys, Daft Punk, Jack White, Calvin Harris, J Cole, Usher have all released albums under one of Sony’s labels, while even Jay’s own wife Beyonce could see her music vanish from her husband’s attempt at a challenger to digital music giants like Spotify and Apple.
According to an interesting and well-reported story by Bloomberg, Jay Z was apparently counting on an investment deal with Sprint to cover these costs, although Sprint has, well, sprinted to set the record straight by noting that its deal with Tidal is not “a financial investment or exclusive partnership.”
Since the 7 artists who may have music pulled stood on stage with Jay Z when he first unveiled the service back in March, this would be another embarrassing setback for Tidal. The service claims to have 900,000 current users, but it is expected that a large number signed up for a free trial and will quit when they have to start paying.
As a means of comparison, three-quarters of Spotify’s 60 million current users are non-paying free users.
Tidal’s story is fascinating to follow for a couple of different reasons.
Firstly, there’s the irony that Jay’s wife Beyonce could have music pulled from the service, having proved such a massive boon for Apple’s competing iTunes service. Beyonce’s surprise BEYONCÉ album was released in late 2013 and went platinum within a week — becoming the fastest-selling album in the history of iTunes.
In the wake of that album, Apple has reportedly pushed for more artist exclusives as a way of re-creating the “Beyonce effect.” Those exclusives are reported to be a big part of the upcoming Beats Music relaunch rumored to be taking place at WWDC.
More crucially, though, is the fact that Jay Z’s Tidal service has demonstrated just how challenging it is to launch a streaming music service to compete with the established likes of Spotify.
Apple likely won’t make some of Jay’s more rookie errors (when your main selling point is making millionaires richer by offering a higher royalty rate, you know you’re onto a loser!), and it certainly has a lot more disposable cash to sink into a break-even or money-losing project early on.
But as happened before the launch of the iPod, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch — when Apple was able to learn from the failures of other tech companies which came before it — Jay Z right now seems to be staging a seminar about what not to do.
Even if part of me would enjoy a Tim Cook freestyle rap taking aim at Cupertino’s enemies.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
11 responses to “Almost half of Tidal’s founders could have to pull their own music”
“an investment deal with Spring to cover these costs” – Sprint?
I noticed that too. LOL
If Sprint sprinted, would Spring have sprung?
Have corrected. Thanks for pointing out.
I would have more respect for Jay Z if he just gave up on this disaster of a project. I agree with others that their huge first mistake was parading the A Listers of the business on stage when talking about paying artists more. Really??
I personally feel that Jay Z is going in the exact opposite and wrong direction with pricing. Tidal may offer better “quality” of sound options but, people had their free Napster and (insert music swapping network here) taken away and Jay Z is touting the most expensive option? LOL, bad move.
never like the Ui but the service was very good once they sold this off to Jay Z I cancelled straight away this will ges tits up I’m sure you may have a well know names but thats about it -what else do you have?
Awww, poor rich people.
I started working from home, by working some basic jobs which only required a computer and access to internet and it’s the best job i ever had… It’s been six months since i started this and i made so far in total 36,000 dollars… Basicly i make close to 80 dollars each hour and work for 3-4 h on daily basis.And the best part about it is that you can work when it’s convenient to you and you get paid at the end of every week.
I don’t mind the idea of the artists getting a bigger cut as they make very little money on actual album sales these days, and I would like to see my favourite artists making more albums and not working at starbucks. HOWEVER, don’t announce your company by bringing a bunch of people on stage who already have more money than I’ll ever know, and telling me they deserve more of my money for a service that is free in several other places.
Musicians are like the scum in the pond that is the music industry, majority of musicians dont make their own music but they want to fight piracy even harder than their record companies. I am truly happy that their last attempt at being relevant in the entertainment business failed so hard.
You have no idea how happy this makes me. Finally, that arrogant smug grin will be wiped from Shawn’s face. Though no doubt he’ll start screaming “racism!” again.