Tidal: Public react to Jay Z's "vain" music streaming launch

Jay Z launched his new music streaming service – Tidal – yesterday in a quiet, understated and slightly awkward affair…featuring Kanye West, Beyonce, Nicki Minaj, Rhianna, Madonna and Coldplay.

As the music industry continues to evolve away from a 2D structure to meet the digital age, services such as Spotify have revolutionised the way we consume music – and essentially, the way music stars earn their money.

Jay Z’s company Project Panther acquired Tidal for £38m two weeks ago to usher in a “new era” for online music and establish a new financial model of music streaming.

For £19.99 per month, users will have access to 25 million tracks, 75,000 music videos and other content including artist interviews. The artist-owned service seeks to destroy the “free” music model popularly associated with Spotify.

However, the service is being labelled a greedy, money-making scheme for the music world’s elite. We took a look at Twitter to have a look at how the public reacted to a slew of music stars turning blue in support of the new service.

guys these artists need our help! they’re really financially struggling! it’s time to turn the tide #TIDALforALL pic.twitter.com/a3DBjlzhG3

— Edgar Rangel (@EdgarAllanFauxx) March 31, 2015

Please help these starving artists. #TIDALforALL pic.twitter.com/R4cB3dwYD5 — Steve Drum (@missunitedface) March 31, 2015

Damn near every one of these major artists hollering #TIDALforALL were silent for #BlackLivesMatter. I guess it’s Money over melanin..

— REGGIEOnTheMOVE™ (@ReginaldLBarnes) March 31, 2015

artists calling #TIDALforALL “revolutionary” lmao.. pic.twitter.com/IQD36GC3MO — mia wallace (@filmfeminist) March 31, 2015

You can watch the weird moment the world’s biggest music stars signed-up to co-own the service:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmDq08HFNnw