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Jay Z took to Twitter on Sunday to defend Tidal, his controversial music streaming service that launched earlier this month.
As Gossip Cop reported, the mogul and a bunch of other top artists are co-owners of the app, which promises to deliver high-quality, exclusive content to subscribers. Almost immediately after its star-studded launch, which saw wife Beyoncé, Madonna, Rihanna, Kanye West, Daft Punk, Nicki Minaj, and more artists revealing their involvement, Tidal was hit with a wave of criticism from fans who deemed it too pricey. And, as Gossip Cop previously noted, even other musicians, such as Mumford & Sons, have slammed the platform, accusing the project of only helping the elite.
And in the last week, many went ahead and deemed Tidal a failure due to both the backlash and its relatively low number of subscribers. But Jay Z isn’t ready to get out of the water just yet. In his first comments since the debut, the rapper announced on Twitter on Sunday, “Stream of consciousness coming in 5, 4, 3, 2… #TidalFacts.”
“Tidal is doing just fine. We have over 770,000 subs. We have been in business less than one month,” tweeted Jay Z. “The iTunes Store wasn’t built in a day. It took Spotify 9 years to be successful. We are here for the long haul. Please give us a chance to grow & get better.”
The music icon continued, “There are many big companies that are spending millions on a smear campaign. We are not anti-anyone, we are pro-artist & fan. We made Tidal for fans. We have more than just music. We have video, exclusive concerts, tickets for events early, live sports!”
“Indie artists who want to work directly w/ us keep 100% of their music. ‘If you don’t want the CEOs all in the videos’ haa,” Jay Z went on to comment, and explained, “Tidal pays 75% royalty rate to ALL artists, writers and producers – not just the founding members on stage.” Responding to one common criticism, he wrote, “Rich getting richer? Equity values… YouTube $390 billion. Apple $760 billion. Spotify $8 billion. Tidal $60 million.”
Jay Z even revealed, “My cousin just moved to Nigeria to discover new talent. Tidal is a global company.” He insisted, “Our actions will speak louder than words. We made Tidal to bring people the best experiences and to help artists give that to their fans over and over again. We are human (even Daft Punk ha). We aren’t perfect – but we are determined.”
Jay Z concluded by urging people to watch Jack White’s concert live stream exclusively on Tidal on Sunday night. What do you think of his defense of the streaming service?
