Rapper and music mogul Jay Z is getting ready to relaunch his recently acquired high-definition music streaming service, Tidal. The announcement of the relaunch is scheduled for today, and invites to the press conference have been sent out. The relaunch of Tidal is expected to change the music streaming landscape, because Jay Z has reportedly signed some big name artists to a deal that gives Tidal exclusive rights to their newest releases, allowing them to play the songs before they are available on other platforms like Beats and Spotify.
Some of the artists, whose new releases are expected to be on Tidal, include Madonna, Kanye West, Beyoncé, and Daft Punk. At the press conference, Jay Z is expected to announce Tidal’s commitment to a new direction for the music industry, from a business and creative stand point. Other than that, his camp hasn’t provided a lot of details about the event. Behind the scenes, the rumor is that he will use the press conference to announce the names of the recording artists who will stream their music exclusively on Tidal.
Over the weekend, there were reports that cited sources that are close to the situation, and they said that Jay Z intends to ink first window deals with some big artists, which would allow Tidal to get the first releases from tracks form the artists, ahead of any other streaming services. The exclusive deal will be for a specified period of time, then Spotify and the other streaming services will get the said tracks later. The deal is similar to what Netflix does, in being the first company allowed to stream movies after they have been released on DVD.
The list of artists that will sign a deal with Tidal isn’t very surprising, because a lot of artists have gone on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram, and they have been using the hashtag #tidalforall, or changing their profile picture to a sky blue color, in support of the new platform. This means that the artists that have been using the hashtag or changing their profile picture to the color, are the ones likely to have signed up with Jay Z.
A big reason that a lot of big name musicians are signing a deal with Tidal is because they are getting a more attractive offer from the streaming service, than they were getting with other streaming platforms. Another reason is the fact that Jay Z’s Roc Nation agency has been working with musicians, helping them with their management, publishing, and other services, which is also appealing to a lot of the musicians.
