Rapper Jay Z made headlines not too long ago due to his infamous elevator brawl with his sister-in-law Solange Knowles. Now, the owner of Roc-A-Fella Records and founder of Roc Nation is making news again as he transitions into an independent artist and plans to release his music through TIDAL.
TIDAL is a music streaming service that originally started in Scandinavia in 2009. However, Jay Z’s company now owns TIDAL, and several artists such as Rihanna, Beyonce, Kanye West, Madonna and more are collaborating with Jay Z in his ventures.
Users of TIDAL are required to pay $9.99 per month to receive unlimited streaming of songs without ads, and the service pitches itself as the first artist-owned global music and entertainment platform.
Gabby Williams, junior nursing major, said music enthusiasts should not have an issue being required to pay for their music.
“If we are faithful fans like some of us claim to be, we should be willing to pay for a couple of songs from TIDAL,” Williams said. “After all, if some of us are willing to pay $100 for a pair of Jordans, then why hesitate to pay $9.99? I love and enjoy music, and I am willing to do what I have to do to listen to it.”
Other streaming music sites, such as Pandora and iHeartRadio, allow users to listen to music for free with ads. However, TIDAL does not offer this service.
Derius Galvez, junior aerospace engineering major, said he is completely against paying for music without any other options.
“Why pay for my music on TIDAL when I can listen to music on Pandora and iHeartRadio? Pandora and iHeartRadio allow me to listen to music for free anytime I want,” he said. “Artists are already paid plenty of money so why beg for more money from users? Music is not that important to pay for.”
The Washington Post reported Jay Z said people would like to listen to music for free, but they are more than willing to pay $6 for water.
TIDAL assures artists their music will be exclusive to the TIDAL music streaming service and will not appear elsewhere.
Taylor Swift sparked controversy recently when she decided to leave commercial music streaming service, Spotify, due to her belief that music is art, and therefore should cost money. Swift is now a part of TIDAL.
R&B singer Alicia Keys spoke at the March 30 press conference for TIDAL and said, “Today marks the true beginning of a mission to change the status quo, to reestablish the value of music. This is powerful. Look how we can all do this together—it’s feeling like a graduation.”
Amber Jordan, junior communication major, said she felt betrayed by her favorite artists when she heard about TIDAL because she feels the money she will be forced to spend every month on music could be used for more useful things.
“Being a college student is not cheap, so for the artist to say that I have to pay $9.99 per month is wrong. Especially when I am a huge fan of some of those artists,” she said.
In a Billboard interview, Jay Z said he and other artists saw the future of music going down a bad path and decided to do something about it.
“We saw the movement and how everything was going and figured that this could possibly be the last music format that we see in a lifetime,” he said. “We didn’t like the direction music was going, and all we did was make people wake up and try to improve the free versus paid system and promote fair trade.”
