Starving Artists Fight The Man

thomnottom

Jay-Z, Beyonce, Kanye, Madonna, Daft Punk, Jack White, Madonna, and Alicia Keys decided that they have had enough bullying by the likes of Spotify and Rdio and introduced a new alternative to ad-sponsored streaming services: Tidal. I understand how hard those guys have it, so hopefully all of the Occupy and Fergusen protesters can take a break to lend their support.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/32129457

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-31/jay-z-s-weird-populist-pitch-for-tidal-pay-these-pop-stars-more-money

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/tidal-jay-zs-spotify-rival-streaming-service-criticised-for-making-wealthy-artists-even-richer-10145485.html

cafreema

Stereogum pretty much destroyed Tidal here.

Craig

Germanprof

What I find sad about this is that it taints the idea that streaming services might not be serving the best interests of music by misappropriating it for more empire building at the top of the pyramid.

Lowlife

I prefer to support the musicians on Bandcamp and still be able to stream their music of buy direct from them.

jackedUPjazz

I didn't know what Tidal was but I knew that Twitter was giving them hell about it for some reason.

A pox on all their houses.  I am unimpressed.  Own your music or it is just another way for somebody to put their grubby hands in your pockets. This is why I miss the good old days at Emu. 

This streaming concept seems to be the wave of the future. I knew we were in  trouble when I figured out what Microsoft Office 365.  People today will fall for any old stupid crap. It's a blanking word processor and spread sheet, they haven't improved upon it since Windows 95.  Why should I pay an annual subscription for access to the latest version.  Apparently you can no longer own a copy.

You millennials better rise up and fight back or they are going to start renting your souls to you on a subscription basis.

Doofy

Op-Ed piece from Aloe Blacc (& some academic attys) that, I think, raises some very legit points about the current compulsory licensing scheme.  It would be interesting to see how the streaming trend would be affected if the system were changed to increase payouts.

[quote]Why would Jay Z spend $54 million to buy music streaming service Tidal, which will allow fellow artists to serve as equity holders? Because he, like others, is fed up with the lack of control that artists have over the music business.  One prime example of this phenomenon is that even though Avicii and Aloe Blacc's hit song "Wake Me Up" had more than 168 million streams on Pandora since its release in 2013, its three songwriters were paid only $12,359. How is that possible? Because the government-mandated compulsory music licensing system forces songwriters to let others use their works at very low, fixed rates. It is high time to end this scheme and allow artists to negotiate freely instead.[/quote]

eta, If there is a way to format quotes on the new board, I don't see it!

cafreema

What Aloe Blacc doesn't mention is that the songwriters made over $1 million from Spotify.  Pandora is a radio station, not a streaming service, so their payout system is completely different.

Craig

Doofy

I guess I just agree that payouts are too low under the current system - if streaming or other forms of "not owning" are going to be the new market norm, as seems to be the case.  

He goes on to suggest that artists like him and John Lennon (srsly?) should get more for licensed cover versions than "unknown" artists/songs, which is where he loses me.  "Imagine a future with website services that list songs, their available uses and prices, all available to commercial users at a mouse click."  - !  Yeah, I guess I can imagine that all right...

PaulR

Doofy said:

eta, If there is a way to format quotes on the new board, I don't see it!

You can wrap the quote with <blockquote class="Quote"> and </blockquote> which gives the same formatting as the quote above. Adding rel="name" to the opening tag adds the name said text.

choiceweb0pen0

As the guys on Sound Opinion noted, what seems to irk these Tidal musicians is that Spotify has a free level. Honestly, with an add muting program, I don't see why most people would pay for Spotify unless they wanted to use it mostly on smartphone or tablet.

 I also see no reason to pay for Tidal. 

cafreema

There are ad muting programs?

Craig

choiceweb0pen0

There are. I use Spotifree for Mac. I know there are others. I did though tell a pc person about such apps and they managed to download a virus, though not sure how directly related that was.  

cafreema

So....maybe it's not the streaming services that are screwing the artists.  Maybe it remains the labels.

Craig

thomnottom

I don't think there was ever a doubt that the labels continue to screw the artists.