Jason Aldean and Jack White are a few of the artists who have jumped on board music mogul Jay Z‘s recently announced streaming music service, TIDAL, which is aimed to compete with Spotify, Pandora, Beats Music, iTunes and others. Additionally, BMLG artist Taylor Swift‘s music (with the exception of her latest album 1989) remains available on TIDAL, as well as on other subscription-based services.
TIDAL was announced this afternoon via a press conference.
The hip-hop artist and business exec Jay Z bid $56 million for the service and parent company Aspiro last month. Scandinavian company Aspiro operates two services, including Tidal in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., as well as WiMP in Norway, Sweden, and other areas of Europe. The two services will now be operated under the name TIDAL worldwide.
Other artists who have signed on include Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Will Butler (Arcade Fire), Calvin Harris, Chris Martin (Coldplay), Daft Punk, Jay Cole, Madonna, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Usher and Rihanna.
TIDAL charges $19.99/month for unlimited listening of high-resolution, “lossless” music, with no free listening tier. The company has licensed 25 million tracks thus far.
The service offers three different sound qualities, including “Standard” (96 kbps-AAC+), “High Quality” (320 kbps-AAC), and HiFi (Flac 1411 kpbs-lossless).
Tidal has integration agreements with 35 audio brands, including: Anthem, Airable by Tune In Media, Astell & Kern, Audeze, Audiovector, AudioQuest, Auralic, Aurender, Autonomic, Bel Canto, Bluesound & NAD, Dan D’Agostino, Definitive Technology, Denon HEOS, DTS Play-Fi, Dynaudio, Electrocompaniet, Harman Omni, HiFiAkademie, ickStream, JH Audio, Linn, McIntosh, Meridian, MartinLogan, Paradigm, Polk, Pro-ject, PS Audio, Raumfeld, Simple Audio, Sonos, Steinway Lyngdorf, Wren Sound Systems.
Aldean and Swift each pulled music from streaming service Spotify last year.
For more, information, visit tidal.com. Watch the press conference below.
About the Author
Jessica Nicholson serves as the Managing Editor for MusicRow magazine. Her previous music journalism experience includes work with Country Weekly magazine and Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) magazine. She holds a BBA degree in Music Business and Marketing from Belmont University. She welcomes your feedback at jnicholson@musicrow.com.View Author Profile
