Cyrus Langhorne
Less than 24 hours after widespread reports about R&B icon Beyoncé Knowles-Carter‘s music possibly disappearing off streaming service Tidal, her record label has stepped forward to speak out.
Sony Music CEO Doug Morris discussed the viral chatter and spoke highly of Bey’s husband, Jay Z, who is invested in Tidal.
Contrary to reports, Sony Music has no plans to pull Beyoncé – or any other artists under their umbrella – from Jay Z’s Tidal streaming service. “Jay-Z is a friend and business associate for many years. I have always admired his business acumen, his entrepreneurship and his passion for music,” Sony Music CEO Doug Morris said in a statement. “All of our content, including Beyoncé, is available through the Tidal service, and we have announced no plans to remove our catalog from Tidal. Like all of our other partners, we are rooting for Jay and Tidal to succeed.” (Rolling Stone)
Reports this week claimed Bey’s record company Sony and other powerhouses like Warner had asked Tidal for advances in exchange for streaming its artists’ tunes.
Nonetheless, if Jay Z can’t come up with the cash for Sony, he faces the possibility that Tidal might lose albums from some of its co-owners, most painfully Beyoncé, a Sony artist. “I’m pretty sure most of the artists that were at the press conference don’t control their own streaming rights,” says Peter Mensch, co-founder of Q Prime, the talent agency that manages the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica. (Bloomberg Business)
Jay also reportedly needs to add more Tidal subscribers for the service to avoid additional hurdles.
To keep his company from becoming a money pit, Jay Z also needs to line up many more Tidal subscribers. Tidal claims to have 900,000 users, but analysts suspect many have signed up for trials and will cancel when they have to start paying. Early on, Jay Z called some of his customers to see how they liked Tidal—a humbling act for a guy who calls himself J Hova (as in Jehovah). Tidal also hasn’t denied rumors that he will release a long-awaited album with Beyoncé exclusively on the service. (Bloomberg)
When asked about the possibility of Jay and Bey’s rumored LP coming out through Tidal, senior executive Vania Schlogel recently emphasized the service’s ability to attract various musicians to premiere new records.
“I don’t think we will disappoint our fans and our subscribers. I think it’s going to be really exciting, because the artists do feel like they have the ability to collaborate and work with each other. They all work as a team. The other exciting piece of it is Tidal Rising which we launched a week or two ago. Tidal Rising is us putting a spotlight on indie and emerging artists. There’s going to be continued collaborations around that too. It’s not just going to be the 16 artists on stage. It’s basically going to be a creative hub. Tidal Discovery, which will be launching within the next week, that’s going to allow any artist, signed or not, to upload their music to Tidal.” (Digital Trends)
That’s a good look. I think that Jay-Z needs to be given more time with this project. Let’s see where it goes in 5 years. This is also a new venture for Mr. Carter. Let’s see where it goes before we judge it. One!
i use TITAL and its pretty good in my opinion, as long as he is breaking bread with other artist on the service he should be in good shape. unless politics happen