Jay Z and chart-topping musicians including Beyoncé, Coldplay, Daft Punk, Kanye West, Madonna and Rihanna have launched Tidal, the first genuine rival to Spotify.
The streaming service is live now in 31 countries and will launch in six more in the coming months.
<a href="http://tidal.com/us" target="_blank">Tidal</a> has access to 25 million tracks, compared to Spotify's 30 million, but also includes 75,000 music videos and "curated" articles, features and interviews. Tidal uses a browser-based player on PC and Mac with apps for Android and iOS. The artist-owned streaming service will hope to regain revenue lost to streaming services, with each artist given an equal stake in its equity.
Speaking at the launch of Tidal, Alicia Keys said the artists involved wanted to "forever change the course of the music industry". In a mission statement she explained that Tidal intended to maintain the value of paying for music.
Speaking to Billboard, Jay Z said that more money for artists was "fantastic" for the industry. "We didn't like the direction music was going and thought maybe we could get in and strike an honest blow. Will artists make more money? Even if it means less profit for our bottom line, absolutely. That's easy for us. We can do that."
Tidal was originally launched by Norwegian firm Aspiro in October 2014 and acquired earlier this year by Jay Z.
Tidal's plan is to offer exclusive music from major artists, including session and demo tracks. It will also hope to make tracks from certain artists exclusive to Tidal for a limited period.
Competition for Tidal will be fierce. Spotify already has more than 15 million paying customers worldwide while YouTube and Apple will soon launch their own streaming services. Tidal had 500,000 paying users at the end of 2014.
Unlike Spotify Tidal doesn't have a free tier. In the US standard streaming costs $9.99 a month with high-fidelity streaming charged at $19.99. In the UK the two subscriptions cost £9.99 and £19.99 respectively.
Tidal's use of direct dollar to pound conversion is likely to rile UK music fans. Its UK prices, if converted into dollars, would be $14.70 and $29.50, substantially more than Tidal actually charges in the US. Spotify has the same policy of directly translating dollar prices into sterling.
At launch Tidal is available in a number of countries throughout Europe, as well as the US, Canada, Singapore and South Africa. The service will launch in six more countries, including Australia and Germany, by the middle of 2015.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
