It’s hardly surprising that Kanye West – known for jumping onstage at awards shows to big up Jay Z’s wife Beyoncé – was among the first to promote the hashtag campaign trailing Jigga’s plans for his newly-acquired streaming site Tidal.
https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/582391919218532352
He’s due to announce his plans for the streaming service later today. In anticipation, artists including West, Rihanna, Beyoncé, Coldplay, Daft Punk and Madonna have been turning their Twitter profile pictures and header images blue (though really it’s more of a turquoise).
Jay Z even fired up his own Twitter account for the first time in 77 days to kick off the coordinated barrage of tweets with the #TidalForAll hashtag, opting for a slightly awkward Bob Dylan pun in the process.
"The Tides They Are-A Changing" #TIDALforALL
— Mr. Carter (@S_C_) March 30, 2015
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Tidal originally launched as a Spotify rival in October 2014, but was acquired by Project Panther Bidco, a company controlled by Jay Z, earlier this month. Its website is now counting down to a relaunch.
Rumors suggest Jay Z held a pop star ‘summit’ including Kanye West, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Jack White, Beyoncé and Rihanna to outline his plans. All of those artists have sent out #TIDALforAll tweets today.
Music makes the people come together. Join Madonna and turn your profile picture blue. Do it for the music. #TIDALforALL
— Madonna (@Madonna) March 30, 2015
The significant amount of star power backing Jay Z’s Tidal relaunch should worry Spotify. Especially if those artists choose to take their catalogs off its service in favor of Tidal. If it can offer a deal that appeals more to artists, that’s far from unimaginable.
Remember, big acts like Taylor Swift have already opted to remove tracks from Spotify, and other classic artists are still yet to make their discographies available for streaming.
As you might expect though, there are plenty of ordinary music fans on Twitter who are somewhat sceptical of what’s inspired all these major performers to turn out and wave the flag for Tidal. The short answer is obvious: it’ll be cash.
We’ll have more new on Jay Z’s vision for Tidal later today.
Feature image credit: landmarkmedia / Shutterstock.com
Update: Jay-Zzzz: Tidal music service is artist-owned to serve no one but his own posse
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