NEWS: So, What The Hell Is Tidal? And Should You Use It?

Nearly two months ago, Jay Z dropped $56 million to buy a Swedish tech company. Yesterday, we found out what he plans to do with it.

Jay recruited 16 musicians (Alicia Keys, Arcade Fire’s Win Butler and Regine Chassagne,Beyoncé​, Calvin Harris, Chris Martin, Daft Punk, deadmau5, Jack White, Jason Aldean, J. Cole, Kanye West, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, and Usher) to become part-owners of Tidal, a re-launched streaming music service that was originally created by Aspiro, the company he bought out. This was announced during a presentation that lined up every part-owner on stage—each reportedly owns 3 percent equity​ in the company—along with the news that Tidal will get exclusive content from them. Next level flexing at its best.

All right, what makes Tidal different than the other streaming music services you’re already using? There has to be something special about it since #TIDALforALL has been trending for two days straight, right? Well, that's the thing, Tidal could be for everyone—everyone just needs money for admission. Unlike Spotify and Pandora who offer ad-based plans, users can't use Tidal for free outside of a two-week trial. Instead, they have to sign up for one of two subscription options: a $9.99-per-month basic plan that streams music at standard definition with high-definition music videos, or a premium plan that streams music in a high-definition “lossless” format for $19.99 a month. Picking out streaming music services is starting to look about as bad as choosing what cable package to get.

The premium subscription, though, dishes out twice the amount of money to artists than Tidal’s basic plan, but they'll have to gain a lot more users if they want a significant chunk of change. (Basic Tidal only pays artists standard royalties​.)

SOURCE: uk.complex.com