Rapper Jay-Z defended streaming music service Tidal with a Twitter tirade this Sunday after a disastrous rollout.
"There are many big companies that are spending millions on a smear campaign," Jay-Z, a major stakeholder in Tidal,
tweeted to his over 3 million Twitter followers. "We are not anti-anyone, we are pro-artist & fan. We made Tidal for fans."
The Daily Beast reported that Tidal, a competitor to Spotify, Pandora, and iTunes, is supposed to be a service that gives musicians more control of how their music is distributed, as well as more money for that music.
Tidal is currently $20 a month, which is in some cases more than double what its competitors charge.
The service was originally launched in October by the Swedish/Norwegian company Aspiro, and acquired by Jay Z’s company Project Panther Ltd. in March. It was soon integrated with sister service WiMP, and re-lauched on March 30 with a celebrity studded press conference.
Jay Z, his wife Beyonce, Kanye West, Madonna, Daft Punk, Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Jack White, and more all attended, and advocated for people signing up.
The conference was not well received, as many said it looked like a bunch of millionaire artists trying to squeeze more money out of their fans.
"Tidal’s logic seems to be that fans’ money will now go directly into the pockets of the artists, but if the monthly premium is more than competing music streaming sites’ like Spotify and Apple’s Beats Music, how does this benefit the fans, and not just pad the pockets of these equity-blessed entrepreneurs?" asked a write at the Beast.
Many said that Jay-Z had missed a huge opportunity to highlight what Tidal might mean for struggling independent artists.
"I think they totally blew it by bringing out a bunch of millionaires and billionaires and propping them up onstage and then having them all complain about not being paid," said indie rock star Ben Gibbard, frontman for both Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service.
"There was a wonderful opportunity squandered to highlight what this service would mean for artists who are struggling and to make a plea to people’s hearts and pocketbooks to pay a little more for this service that was going to pay these artists a more reasonable streaming rate. And they didn’t do it. That’s why this thing is going to fail miserably."