Tidal has officially been relaunched at an event attended by various global stars including Madonna, Rihanna, Kanye West and Jay-Z, who bought the service last year. It faces tough competition from the likes of Spotify, but the company say the service will offer various exclusive features and give artists a better deal than rival streaming platforms.
Tidal claims to offer lossless “CD quality” streaming, giving it an edge over other services which only host compressed files. This level of quality should be particularly appealing to those who own high-end audio equipment.
The service is now owned by artists who have been given a stake of equity for signing up. It says it will pay artists twice the amount given to them by standard streaming. It’s thought that that the company will pay artists and labels to put their music on Tidal before it hits other services.
Jay- bought the company that owned Tidal, Aspiro, for $56 million in January. Users will be able to pay $19.99 per month for HD audio and $9.99 for standard quality streaming. The company won’t be offering free or ad-supported streaming. The music of Taylor Swift – aside from her latest album, 1989, is on Tidal.