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From IDLES, With Love: ‘This Is The Time When Art Is At Its Most Vital’

Jay Z Stands By Tidal In Twitter Response To Ongoing Criticism

27 April 2015 | 10:51 am | Staff Writer

The hip hop mogul wants you to know everything is fine, thanks for asking

It's been less than a month since 16 of the world's biggest music stars gathered on stage to demonstrate their joint support for Jay Z and his newly acquired streaming platform Tidal, but the gilded launch ultimately proved more curse than blessing as artist after artist lined up to criticise the new player on the digital scene.

The turning against Tidal reached fever pitch last week when prominent Jay Z cohort Kanye West quietly removed all references to the streaming service from his social media accounts, which many outlets took as a sign that even the bridge crew were abandoning ship. However, the service has been newly defended by none other than Jay Z himself in a stream-of-consciousness message conveyed via Twitter to reaffirm his belief in Tidal, its growth potential, and its artists, ultimately using the opportunity to announce an acoustic live stream by founding signatory artist Jack White.

"Tidal is doing just fine," Jay Z began his missive, explaining the fledgling service has "over 770,000 [subscribers]" after having been "in business less than one month".

"The iTunes Store wasn't built in a day. It took Spotify 9 years to be successful," he continued. "We are here for the long haul. Please give us a chance to grow & get better."

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Jay Z pleads his case to the faithful and fence-sitters alike by dismissing what he calls a corporate "smear campaign" and reiterating Tidal's organisational commitment to artists and fans.

"There are many big companies that are spending millions on a smear campaign," he wrote. "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!… Tidal is where artists can give their fans more without the middlemen."

In addition, Jay Z explains that indie artists wishing to work with Tidal will "keep 100% of their music", that the company pays 75% royalty rates "to all artists, writers and producers — not just the founding members on stage", and that, as far as charges that the company represents the "rich getting richer" are concerned, "Equity values [for the present major streaming services are] YouTube $390 billion. Apple $760 billion. Spotify $8 billion. Tidal $60 million".

Jay Z concluded the arguments of Tidal v Everyone by announcing that the platform would be hosting a live-stream acoustic concert performance by Jack White via its website and continuing to push back against the claims of elitism that have plagued the service since launching under the rapper late last month.

"My cousin just moved to Nigeria to discover new talent," Jay Z wrote. "Tidal is a global company … Tidal is for all."

"We are human (even Daft Punk ha)," he continued. 

"We aren't perfect — but we are determined."

Read Jay Z's full tweet stream below.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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