In the span of a few weeks Jay Z’s new artist-owned streaming service has gone from an unknown foreign underdog to the talk of the town.
Yesterday, TIDAL launched with a showy press conference featuring more than a dozen high-profile artists that each reportedly own a stake in the company. Speaking with Billboard about the rollout, Jay Z explained why he chose to invest in streaming, align himself with fellow musicians as owners, and how the music industry has reacted to the push.
“For someone like me, I can go on tour,” Jay Z said of a musician’s options for making money. “But what about the people working on the record, the content creators and not just the artists? If they’re not being compensated properly, then I think we’ll lose some writers and producers and people like that who depend on fair trade. Some would probably have to take another job, and I think we’ll lose some great writers in the process. Is it fair? No. If you put in work, everyone else, you go to work you get paid. That’s fair trade. It’s what our country is built on.”
When asked if he encountered any major label backlash when presenting the idea around the industry, Jay offered that TIDAL isn’t in competition with labels.
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“I think the labels were a bit suspicious that we were creating a record company,” he said. “It’s not a record company; if anything, it’s a record store. I have a record company. I don’t want another label. I’m happy with what I’m doing. But some were suspicious. We had talks, like, ‘Man, you guys also ought to bless this talent. We want you to be involved in this thing as well.’ Again, we’re not even against other streaming companies. We want everyone to do well. We just want to carve out our section and let our voice be heard.”
While millions of dollars are on the line, Jay Z also speaks about TIDAL figuratively as a way of attacking the industry status quo.
“If everyone says, ‘Wow, so many things have changed.’ This has gotten better,” he said. “I like what’s happening. If Aloe Blacc and his writers, the guys he wrote with, are not seeing a $4,000 check from 168 million streams. They did their job, they worked, they done it. The people loved it, the people consumed it. Where’d it go? People didn’t pay or stream Aloe Blacc’s music for it to turn into vapor and go into the air. Where is it?”
For additional Jay Z coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
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