"I'm not a businessman, I'm a
business, man!" If that's not a fact which describes
Shawn Carter aka Jay-Z, then I don't know what is! His resume includes a
successful rap career, owning his own clothing line, entertainment company, Roc
Nation, and 40/40 clubs which equates to his net worth of $510 million.
Jay Z can add on a streaming service called Tidal to his expanding resume.
In a news conference that happened
on Monday, the rap mogul announced his plan for his new business venture,
Tidal, which is a music subscription streaming service (which came out to be a
whopping total of $56 million *gasp*). Tidal differs from future
competitors such as Spotify, Apple, YouTube, Pandora, and Google because the
majority of the service will be owned by artists. Some of Tidal's owners
include artists such as Rihanna, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Madonna, Alicia Keys,
Daft Punk, and his wife, Beyonce. This new service will enable artists to have
control of their work and control how it reaches the ears of the public.
Tidal, which is available in 31
countries, will have no free versions such as the likes of Spotify and Pandora.
There will be two types of subscriptions: $10 a month for the standard format
stream and $20 for CD-quality streams. According to Carter, "The
challenge is to get everyone to respect music again, to recognize its value.
Water is free. Music is $6 but no one wants to pay for music. You should drink
free water from the tap-it's a beautiful thing. And if you want to hear the
most beautiful song, then support the artist".
The idea sounds like a great one,
but a few obstacles the mogul may face will be his ability to reach out to
other artists outside of his inner circle and distribution rights with record
labels.
Hmm...What is to become of Tidal's
future?
(Photo: Twitter)
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