What’s the Deal?

From Daft Punk to Madonna, Arcade Fire, and Beyoncé, artists’ profile pictures have been switched to a simple turquoise solid. At first, most thought their accounts had been hacked, obviously. Then, after all the rage in the comments, some users tried providing more realistic answers. The Mexican community claimed it was in support of the Turquesa campaign by political party Nueva Alienza, while Francophones assumed it was to raise awareness about autism… Once the most entertaining part was coming to an end, we understood that this sudden switch was in support of TIDAL, an originally Swedish music streaming service recently acquired by the great Jay Z.

So, What’s Different?

Tidal is, as the owners themselves describe it, a platform owned by artists, aiming to reestablish the value of music.

So basically, the main objective will be to focus more on the music than the technology and the commercial aspect of streaming services. Besides, promoters guarantee a higher quality audio, and a “high fidelity streaming service”.

So, on Monday, March 30, all the artists involved met in New York City. As it turns out, Jay Z isn’t the only president of TIDAL: Daft Punk, Kanye West, Jack White, Beyoncé, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Rihanna, Madonna, and Arcade Fire’s Win Butler and Régine Chassagne are all co-owners.

However, he seems to be the one to have united this “game-changing” all-star lineup, and is clearly the main campaigner for TIDAL:

“We didn’t like the direction music was going and thought maybe we could get in and strike an honest blow and if, you know, the very least we did was make people wake up and try to improve the free vs. paid system, and promote fair trade, then it would be a win for us anyway. […] People are not respecting the music, and [are] devaluing it and devaluing what it really means. […] People really feel like music is free, but will pay $6 for water. You can drink water free out of the tap, and it’s good water. But they’re OK paying for it. It’s just the mind-set right now”, Jay Z told Billboard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q6iXyE6fSE

And… What’s the Catch?

Obviously, such a huge project couldn’t be given away for free. So, two options are available upon subscribing to TIDAL. You can either get the “premium” version for 9.99$/month which is the basic service, or the “HiFi” version, for 19.99$/month, which offers HQ lossless sound. However, to be able to attract people and compete with other streaming services such as Spotify, the first trial month is free, and you can try it out right now, on the TIDAL website.