Jay Z Unveils Tidal, Names Kanye, Daft Punk, Drake as Co-owners

BY Alex HudsonPublished Mar 30, 2015

Jay Z has gone all-out with the launch of his Tidal streaming service. He officially unveiled the platform with a live-streaming event in New York City today (March 30), and it featured a bevy of stars coming together and declaring a new world order of sorts.

Of course, a lot of this is hyperbole and marketing, but it seems that Tidal really does take a slightly more artist-friendly approach. Most significantly, the company is actually owned by musicians, since supporters like Kanye West, Rihanna, Daft Punk, Drake, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Alicia Keys, Coldplay, Arcade Fire, Jack White, Usher, deadmau5 and Beyoncé all have a stake in the company.

In a rather grandiose moment in the video stream, these owners assembled on stage and signed a declaration. The stream included many quotes from the artists involved; Daft Punk showed up in their usual robot outfits.

Although the live stream is now over, it can be rewatched below, along with a promo video that was shared earlier today.

As previously reported, Tidal's Premium service costs $9.99 a month, while the HiFi service costs $19.99. Unlike Spotify, it doesn't offer a free tier. Tidal offers CD-quality sound and offline capabilities.

Not all artists are happy about Tidal, however, since the Haxan Cloak has claimed that the service ripped off his music in its promo teaser.

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