Madonna, Beyoncé, Rihanna and Alicia Keys (pictured above) teamed up to convince the world to fork out for a service that lets the public listen to their songs on the internet. The music streaming service is the brainchild of rapper Jay Z, 45. Despite being backed by showbusiness superstars, Tidal was the most talked about topic in the world on Twitter, with thousands branding it 'greedy,' 'out of touch,' 'cynical' and 'money grabbing.'
But it seems their attempts to make waves in the music industry turned into a flood... of complaints.
Despite being backed by showbusiness superstars, Tidal was the most talked about topic in the world on Twitter yesterday, with thousands branding it ‘greedy’, ‘out of touch’, ‘cynical’ and ‘money grabbing’.
Many critics said they felt cheated – thinking the stars had gathered to launch a new charity campaign rather than a project to swell their bank accounts even further.
The music streaming service is the brainchild of rapper Jay Z, 45, who along with his wife Beyoncé, 33, is worth almost $1billion (£676million).
At one point 18 of the biggest names in music took to the stage to launch the enterprise. Pictured: Usher, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Madonna, Deadmau5, Kanye West, Jay Z, and J.Cole at the event
Streaming enables fans to listen to songs or watch music videos online, without having to buy or download them permanently on to their computers.
Such services have vast libraries of songs, with one of the most popular firms – Spotify – boasting more than 30million tracks to listen to. But Spotify and other competitors provide their services for free – offering musicians a nominal amount for including their tracks on their libraries. Many of the world’s leading musicians are now starting to turn against such deals, saying they are not earning enough from them.
US pop star Taylor Swift famously pulled all her music off Spotify last year.
The 25-year-old wrote at the time: ‘Music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album’s price point is. I hope they don’t underestimate themselves or undervalue their art’.
Making them richer
Tidal now offers fans a rival service, providing a huge library of music for users to listen to, but charging a minimum of £9.99 a month. On Monday, almost 20 multi-millionaire artists gathered on stage in the Big Apple to lend their support.
The line-up included rap star Kanye West, 37, Nicki Minaj, 32, and Usher, 36 – along with pop royalty Madonna 56, and Rihanna, 27. British stars Calvin Harris, 31, and Chris Martin, 38, appeared via video link.
Read more: DailyMail
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