The Tidal backlash remains at full throttle among the angrier commenters on online news articles about Jay Z’s streaming music service – but the company continues to push back at suggestions it’s just a club for rich musicians to get even richer. “If anything, it’s the opposite of that … We have been developing a program to foster the careers of independent and emerging artists — that’s very important to the founding artists,” said Roc Nation’s chief investment officer Vania Schlogel on Friday – the first time such a scheme has been mentioned.
“It’s all about paying it forward and working very cyclically and discovering new music,” added Jay Z in a Q&A with music students. Meanwhile, we’ve been getting a first sight of the kind of exclusives Tidal may be getting: new tracks from Beyoncé and Rihanna. Both seem to fall into the early-access category of exclusive, which suggests that Tidal may be competing as much with Vessel as with Spotify. And yes, unsurprisingly both songs were quickly ripped and uploaded to YouTube in a barrage of user-generated videos.
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