Grimes and Jay Z Weigh In On the Latest Round of Tidal Naysaying

It’s been less than a month since Jay Z and his super team announced Tidal, but due to its high-profile…
Art & Culture
Grimes and Jay Z Weigh In On the Latest Round of Tidal Naysaying

It’s been less than a month since Jay Z and his super team announced Tidal, but due to its high-profile…

Words: Bailey Pennick

April 28, 2015

Tidal Logo

It’s been less than a month since Jay Z and his super team announced Tidal, but due to its high-profile millionaire creators and vague list of promises, the music streaming service has been under intense scrutiny. It turns out that Tidal wasn’t the instant hit that the collective expected, but Mr. Carter recently broke his silence about the negative press his project has been receiving and told his Twitter followers to not count the app out yet.

After Jay Z’s self-proclaimed “stream of consciousness,” Grimes also took to social media to express her support of the still-very-new streaming alternative. In an Instagram post (which was deleted, but the text was thankfully saved by Pigeons and Planes) Claire Boucher wrote:

Mad respect for tidal!! I literally know musicians who live in cars and storage spaces etc. And I know some pretty popular musicians who still struggle to make ends meet. Unless artists have a popular live show there aren’t a lot of income streams available. People have characterized tidal negatively but I promise it’s 100% artist friendly, and fan friendly since yall have the option to pay the same rate as other streaming respect to everyone involved for doing the right thing for struggling artists – this kind of thing is so important, especially for indie music! PS I AM SIGNED TO 4AD!! The misconception that I am not an independent artist anymore is incorrect, i can speak as an independent artist here. Roc nation manages me, I’m not signed to them nor do I have any investment in tidal, nor did anyone ask me to say this. Ps to everyone who buys music respect! Glad to hear many of u buy music rather than stream which is the best way to support smaller artists! ^_^ and also, for those who can’t afford streaming or buying music, I do not judge anyone for that! This is a suggestion, not a demand, in sorry it has created so much anger amongst yall

One of our major questions about Tidal was how important exclusive content was going to be to the streaming service’s success. On Sunday night, Jack White put his money where his mouth was and live streamed his last acoustic show from Fargo, North Dakota, solely on Tidal. White has promised that the intimate performance would be his last live show for a long time, and we just hope that all 770,000 Tidal subscribers were watching.

(via Stereogum)