Tidal (stylized as TIDAL, also known as TIDALHiFi) is a subscription-based music streaming service that combines lossless audio and high definition music videos
with curated editorial. The service has over 25 million tracks and 85,000 music
videos.Currently
offering no free subscription plans, Tidal claims to pay the highest percentage
ofroyalties to music artists and songwriters within the music streaming market. Tidal offers two digital music streaming services:
Tidal Premium (lossy quality) and Tidal HiFi (lossless CD quality - FLAC-based
16-Bit/44.1 kHz). Tidal was launched in 2014 byNorwegian/Swedish public company Aspiro. It has distribution agreements
with all of thethree major labels, in addition to many indies. In the first quarter of 2015,
the parent company Aspiro was acquired by Project Panther Ltd., which is owned
by Shawn "Jay Z" Carter.
Following
the acquisition of Aspiro by Jay Z in March 2015, a mass-marketing campaign was
introduced to relaunch Tidal. Multiple music artists changed their social media profiles design blue, and posted the
phrase "#TIDALforAll" on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
A press conference took place on March 30, 2015, introducing sixteen music
artists to the stage, including Jay Z, who were all co-owners and stakeholders
in Tidal. The service was promoted as being the first
artist-owned streaming service. Each artist publicly signed a declaration,
which opened with: "Throughout history, every movement began with a few
individuals banding together with a shared vision – a vision to change the
status quo."
The
relaunch of Tidal with the new artist-owned model were mostly panned by
publications and fellow musicians alike. Some praised the impressive high
fidelity, lossless audio quality, and the higher subscription fees which would
result in higher royalties to the artists and songwriters, whilst others felt the
high subscription fees and exclusive Tidal content from the artists involved
could result in an increase of music
piracy. As of March 2015, the service itself claims to have over 580,000 paying
users after being integrated with its sister service, WiMP, as well as 17,000 using the high
fidelity service. Tidal currently
operates in 31 countries. In March 2016, Tidal announced it has over 3
million subscribers.
