Is Tidal As Revolutionary as Jay-Z Describes?

Jay-Z is without a doubt one of the world’s most influential artists, but no one would have really understood how powerful he was until he acquired a European startup and transformed it into one of today’s leading music companies, spearheading a Tidal revolution, or at least what he believes to be a revolution.

When news first broke of the platinum-recording rapper, music fans and especially the industry itself were quick to criticise Jay-Z’s new venture as it seemingly appeared to be a business opportunity profiting only the highest paid musicians. The Daily Beast reports that Mumford & Sons frontman Marcus said, “Bigger bands have other ways of making money… And when they say it’s artist-owned, it’s owned by those rich, wealthy artists.” Yet all it took for him to change his views on the music streaming service was one phone call from the Tidal leader himself, telling Business Insider that he supports it now that he understands the vision, but this vision is yet to be shared with the rest of the critics.

With more of the industry’s successful musicians following in Jay-Z’s lead and backing up this burgeoning company, music fans are still hesitant about paying for celebrity-endorsed services that are available elsewhere at no cost. As developers further explore the world of mobile–the most powerful trend in the internet landscape as described by the operators of the online bingo guide Free Bingo Hunter–smartphone and tablet users have plenty of sources for free tunes. The rapper’s reasoning for subscription fees are high fidelity streaming, and the fact that it’s currently being utilized as a platform for indie groups and unsigned bands to earn some money while building a following. According to Consequence of Sound, Tidal doubles Spotify’s royalties, although how much could these indie musicians earn if hardly anyone is willing to pay for the service?

A 30-day trial is available for new users, and subscription rates depend on how users choose to access Tidal. On Tidal.com, the basic service Tidal Premium costs $9.99 per month while the monthly subscription fee for Tidal HIFI is $19.99. The prices are a little higher for the iOS app as Apple takes 30 percent of profits earned when people sign up through the App Store, with Premium subscription rates amounting to $12.99 a month and HIFI costing $25.99 a month. The price differences caused some confusion back in April as people accused the company for hiking up the rates, causing more controversy for the company despite Tidal disclosing on their website that the service costs extra for iOS users.