Jay-Z's Tidal streaming service is backed by a dream team of musical talent, but will it blend?
By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Having that love of music is the foundation that sets us apart from someone that's a tech company that's selling advertisement or selling hardware.
-Jay-Z on Tidal
Responding to the seismic shift in music consumption trends, where subscription-based streaming services are quickly surpassing CD sales and even music downloads, Jay-Z rallied some of music's biggest names to back his recently acquired Tidal music streaming service, which he bought for a cool $56 million.
Touted as the first online distribution service owned and operated by artists, artists like Madonna, Daft Punk, Kanye West, Coldplay, Nikki Minaj, Rhianna, Usher, Deadmau5, Jack White and many others will release their new material on Tidal before making it available on other services such as Spotify, Google Play Music or Apple's upcoming Beats-backed streaming service.