With many led to believe that Brooklyn, New York rapper Jay Z was the owner of Tidal after he purchased the company for $56 million earlier this year, a Tidal executive recently spoke with the Wall Street Journal to clarify Jay Z’s role at the company.
According to Tidal executive Vania Schlogel, Jay Z is not the sole owner of the streaming service. Instead, “artists are equal owners in the company.”
“The artist owners felt very passionately about the mission upon which Tidal is founded, and so the artists are equal owners in the company,” Schlogel said. “Jay’s capital that has gone in is at a very – I would term it below market interest rate to support the company.”
Schlogel was later asked if she foresees artists pulling their music off of streaming services, similar to what singer Taylor Swift did with Spotify earlier this year.
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She explained that she’s more concerned with artists being able to choose whether they want to release their art for free or receive payment.
“I think it really comes down to the artist choice,” she said. “I would like to see artists have the choice to be able to mandate whether or not their art is for free or paid. That’s what we stand for. Again, the artists are empowered. And so, in the distribution of their own repertoire, they should have a say whether or not they want it to be paid [or] for free.”
Vania Schlogel’s interview with the Wall Street Journal can be found below.
For additional TIDAL coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
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