Today in Hip-Hop – Jay-Z Relaunches Tidal Streaming Service
On this day, March 30, in hip-hop history...
2015: Jay-Z relaunched Tidal streaming service in a Miami ceremony on March 30, 2015.
Promising a "new order" in the music streaming arms race, Jay Z launched his own streaming platform called TIDAL to rival established apps like Spotify, Pandora SoundCloud and Apple Music.
HOV took over Tidal from the Swedish company Aspiro for a cool $56 million, determined to attract media attention to just how badly artists are short changed when their songs are streamed millions of times.
In a live-streamed ceremony from Miami on March 30, Jay assembled his famous family and friends to publicly sign as partners of the Tidal brand. "Artists owners" from every genre of music came out to sign on the dotted line. J. Cole, Kanye West, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Beyonce, Swizz Beatz, Usher and more were all in attendance for the signing of the Tidal Bill of Rights.
At the time of its launch, Jay promised that unlike other streaming services, Tidal would pay the artists the highest royalty percentage in the business when their song gets streamed.
Two months later, Jay would celebrate the launch with a rare Roc-A-Fella reunion show in NYC called Tidal X: Jay Z B-Sides. By October of 2015, to celebrate 1 million subscribers to the service, Jay once again gathered his famous friends for a Tidal X 10:20 Festival in Brooklyn. As Tidal continues to rival other streaming services, Beyonce, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West and Rihanna continue to release music exclusively on Tidal, forcing more and more of their fans to sign up each day.
