Tidal (service)
Developer | Aspiro |
---|---|
Launch date | October 28, 2014 |
Platform(s) | Windows macOS iOS Android WatchOS Tizen OS tvOS Android TV CarPlay Android Auto Amazon Alexa WiiM Tesla |
Status | Active |
Availability | 61 countries[1] |
Website | www |
Tidal (stylized TIDAL) is a Norwegian-American music streaming service, launched in 2014 by the Norwegian-Swedish public company Aspiro. Tidal is now majority-owned by Block, Inc., the owner of the point-of-sale system Square.[2]
With distribution agreements with all three major record labels and many independent labels,[3] Tidal claims to provide access to more than 80 million tracks and 350,000 music videos.[4] On April 10, 2024, Tidal merged its two subscription plans to become one simply named Tidal, which offers the same quality as the former HiFi Plus plan (FLAC HiRes 24-bit/192KHz and MQA – 24-bit/352.8 kHz).[5] However, on July 24, 2024, Tidal removed the feature to listen in MQA.[6] Tidal claims to pay the highest percentage of royalties to music artists and songwriters within the music streaming market.[7]
In March 2015, Aspiro was acquired by Project Panther Bidco Ltd., which relaunched the service with a mass-marketing campaign, promoting it as the first artist-owned streaming service.[8] In January 2017, Sprint Corporation bought 33% of Tidal for a reported $200 million. In March 2021, Block, then known as Square, agreed to pay $297 million for majority ownership of Tidal.[9] In June, 2022, through the disclosure of the Annual Stockholder Meeting 2022, Block reported that the stake acquired in the Tidal music service was 86.8%.[10]
While some observers praised the high-fidelity audio quality, and higher subscription fees that would result in higher royalties to the artists and songwriters, others felt the high subscription fees and exclusive Tidal content from the artists involved could lead to more music piracy. Tidal claimed to have over 3 million subscribers in 2016,[11] although the veracity of those claims and the company's reported streaming numbers have been questioned.[12] As of April 2024[update], Tidal operates in 61 countries.[13]
History
[edit]Branching off from WiMP, which was launched in Norway in 2010 and later available in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and Poland, Aspiro launched the Tidal brand in the UK, the US, and Canada on October 28, 2014. The launch was supported by Sonos and 15 other home audio manufacturers as integration partners.[14] In January 2015, Tidal launched in five more European countries: Ireland, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.[3]
Aspiro was purchased by Project Panther Bidco Ltd. (controlled by American rapper and businessman Jay-Z) for SEK 466 million (USD $56.2 million) in January 2015.[15][16] Before the acquisition of Aspiro, Jay-Z stated in an interview with Billboard that he was willing to partner with other streaming services to carry out his vision. "We talked to every single service and we explored all the options," he said, "But at the end of the day, we figured if we're going to shape this thing the way we see it, then we need to have independence. And that became a better proposition for us, not an easier one, mind you," he concluded.[17]
On April 16, 2015, it came to public attention that Tidal was closing its original Aspiro offices in Stockholm, terminating the employment for all Swedish employees and the CEO, Andy Chen.[18] The company refused to comment on closing the offices but confirmed that Andy Chen had been replaced as CEO by Peter Tonstad.[19] In September 2015, Tidal began selling digital downloads and CDs.[20] In December 2015, Tidal appointed Jeff Toig as CEO of the company. Toig left the company in March 2017.[21] Richard Sanders was announced as CEO in August 2017.[22]
In January 2017, the company announced a partnership with British company Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) which they claim delivers master-quality recordings at typically 96 kHz / 24-bit with the highest possible resolution to its HiFi subscribers. Tidal is the only streaming company to offer MQA.[23] MQA is a three part process applied to digital audio music recordings consisting of: 1) modifying and controlling the end to end digital filter response; 2) preparing the high-quality audio for transfer to a smartphone or audio device using a lossy audio compression format; and 3) decompressing the recording for playback.[24] On January 23, 2017, US mobile carrier Sprint announced that they were buying a 33 percent stake in Tidal,[25] and it was reported that Sprint would offer exclusive content to Sprint customers.[26] In September 2017, Tidal partnered with Mercedes-Benz's web portal app.[27] American rapper Nicki Minaj starred in a commercial promoting the Mercedes partnership.[28] The catalog available in MQA on Tidal currently comprises certain albums and singles from Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, its affiliates and certain independent distributors, including AvidPlay service provided by Avid Technology.[29] Since November 2020, the largest part of the MQA catalog available on Tidal is that of Warner Music Group and its affiliates, which was made available as part of a new deal with MQA and Warner Music Group itself.[30] In the past, Sony Music also offered certain albums and singles from their catalog in MQA on Tidal, but their quality were later reduced; exceptions include Beyoncé's albums Lemonade and Homecoming: The Live Album, both released by Parkwood Entertainment and distributed by Sony Music's label Columbia Records (likely most possible reason of these exceptions is Tidal's ownership – Jay-Z is Beyoncé's husband).
In 2017, Tidal announced a series of podcasts to launch the same year.[31] American rappers Fat Joe and Joey Badass hosted "Coca Vision" and "47 Minutes" respectively.[32][33]
In July 2019, Tidal expanded their credits feature and launched interactive official music credits on the platform, allowing user to click on musicians and other contributors.[34][35] These credits are supplied by the labels and artists direct to Tidal.[36]
In March 2021, it was announced that financial technology company Square, Inc. had reached an agreement to acquire majority ownership of Tidal. Square would pay $297 million in cash and stock for Tidal, and Jay-Z would have a board position. Jay-Z and other artists who own stock in Tidal would remain stakeholders.[37][38]
In November 2021, Tidal introduced a free tier for the first time, though exclusively for the United States.[39] CD-quality HiFi audio was also introduced to all paid plans, while MQA-quality audio was kept exclusive for the new HiFi Plus plan.[39]
Tidal's download store closed in October 2022.[40]
Tidal laid off more than 10% of its staff in December 2023.[41]
Platform exclusivity
[edit]A selling point for Tidal as compared with other streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora Radio is the exclusive content already available and expected for the future from the current artists who co-own the company, as well as others. Exclusive content available on the relaunch of Tidal included Rihanna's single "Bitch Better Have My Money", The White Stripes debut television appearance, Daft Punk's Electroma (2006), and playlists personally curated by Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Arcade Fire, and Coldplay.[42] Tidal stated on its official Twitter page that "lots of exclusive content [is] on the way".[43]
Jay-Z's catalogue was not available on Spotify but was almost entirely exclusive on Tidal[44] until his 50th birthday.[45]
Artist ownership
[edit]During the press conference, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Daft Punk, Jack White, Madonna, Arcade Fire, Alicia Keys, Usher, Chris Martin, Calvin Harris, deadmau5, Jason Aldean and J. Cole were introduced to the stage as "the owners of TIDAL".[8][46][47] Eric Harvey of Pitchfork stated of the artists who co-own the service, "These are the 1 percent of pop music in the world right now, these are artists who do not answer to record labels, do not answer to corporations."[17]
On March 30, 2015, a press conference was held at Skylight at Moynihan Station in New York City, to relaunch Tidal officially.[48] The conference started with a brief introduction and explanation of Tidal. After introducing the aforementioned sixteen artist co-owners of Tidal onstage, recording artist Alicia Keys spoke on behalf of the artists and for Tidal. She stated, "So we come together before you on this day, March 30th, 2015, with one voice in unity in the hopes that today will be another one of those moments in time, a moment that will forever change the course of music history." Keys also described the event as like a "graduation".[49] At the end of the press conference, all artists onstage signed a declaration, which stated Tidal's mission.[50] Tidal claimed to have gained 100,000 new subscribers following the press conference revealing the artists involved in the service.[51]
In June 2015, Lil Wayne joined the service's roster as an artist co-owner, starting the partnership by exclusively releasing a track on the service called "Glory".[52] On February 23, 2016, T.I. joined the service's roster as the latest co-owner, beginning the partnership by releasing "Money Talk", a single from his tenth album, Dime Trap, exclusively on the service; his album was also streamed live on Tidal from Greenbriar Mall in Atlanta.[53]
On July 1, 2017, it was reported Kanye West left Tidal as co-owner and shareholder, after a financial argument with its board of directors[54] regarding compensation for his contributions to the company. West later demanded payment from Tidal of $3 million for his inclusion on marketing efforts, video production, and claiming the release of his 2016 album, The Life of Pablo, being the reason for Tidal's 1.5 million subscriber increase soon following the release.[55] In response, Tidal stated West failed to deliver the videos he promised on his contract.[56]
Releases
[edit]In April 2015, Tidal exclusives included Beyoncé releasing a video of her performing "Die With You", a never-before-heard original song, dedicated to her and Jay-Z's wedding anniversary, Madonna releasing a teaser of her upcoming music video at the time for "Ghosttown" and Rihanna debuting her brand new song and music video "American Oxygen".[57][58]
In January 2016, Tidal released Rihanna's Anti as a one-week exclusive stream.[59] In February 2016, Tidal secured an exclusive initial release with Kanye West's The Life of Pablo. West went on to vow that the album would "never appear on any other services [than Tidal]", nor would it ever be for sale.[60] On April 23, 2016, Beyoncé released her second visual album, Lemonade, for streaming exclusively on Tidal. On April 25, it was made available for purchase by track or album on Amazon Music and the iTunes store and on May 6, it arrived at physical retailers.
Jay-Z's 2017 album 4:44 debuted on Tidal.[61] The next year, Jay-Z released a collaborative album with Beyoncé, Everything Is Love, via Tidal.[62]
Livestreaming
[edit]Tidal regularly streams concerts live and on-demand including the Made in America festival and TIDAL X Brooklyn.[63][64] In 2018, Tidal live-streamed Hot 97's 25th annual Summer Jam.[65] Also in 2018, Tidal partnered with Equal Justice Initiative to live-stream The Concert for Peace and Justice.[66] The concert commemorated the opening of The National Memorial for Peace and Justice and The Legacy Museum, both located in Montgomery, Alabama.
Reception
[edit]Shortly after Tidal's launch and press conference, the mobile version of the service shot to the top 20 of the U.S. iPhone Apps chart. Following criticism for its "out-of-touch marketing campaign", two weeks later, the app had already fallen out of the top 700 rankings of the same list.[67]
Praise
[edit]Glenn Peoples of Billboard wrote that Tidal was a good thing for the music industry. He stated that the U.S. streaming market needed a "kick in the butt" when looking at the growth rate of streaming from 2014 to 2015. Peoples also noted that more competition in the streaming market is a good thing as it could lead to a "greater diffusion of innovation". He concluded that a service like Tidal – which is promoted as paying a fair amount of royalties to both the artists and the songwriters – will lead to the industry as a whole sorting out its issues with streaming royalties.[68]
Criticism
[edit]Writing for USA Today's website in 2015, Micah Peters released a list of "3 reasons why Jay-Z's new Tidal streaming service is stupid". The article focused on points that the high fidelity, the lossless audio quality model being promoted was "overestimat[ing] the average listener". Peters worried that most listeners do not have the required, advanced headphones to distinguish the difference between ordinary and high-fidelity audio (Hi-Fi). The article also stated that the $20 price was not reasonable for the mass market.[69]
In 2015, recording artist Lily Allen expressed her opinions on Tidal on her official Twitter account. She feared that the high price of Tidal, as well as the mass popularity of the artist co-owners, could result in crippling the music industry and increasing piracy. She stated, "I love Jay-Z so much, but Tidal is (so) expensive compared to other perfectly good streaming services, he's taken the biggest artists… Made them exclusive to Tidal (am I right in thinking this?), people are going to swarm back to pirate sites in droves".[70]
Jay-Z responded to criticism with a freestyle during the Tidal X: Jaÿ-Z B-Sides[71] concert. He compared Tidal with Apple and Nike and wrote that Tidal had been subjected to hypocritical criticism.
Kanye West's decision to initially release his album The Life of Pablo as a Tidal streaming exclusive led to criticism from fans, who felt that streaming exclusivity could promote piracy. The album was pirated over 500,000 times as of February 17, 2016.[72] West later made the album available to stream on competing services.[73] In July 2017, West terminated his contract with Tidal, claiming that the service owed him $3 million.[74]
Finances and royalties
[edit]In 2015, one artist stated that artist royalties per track from Aspiro/Tidal were then over three times those paid by Spotify, but that royalties may decrease to provide a sufficient return on investment.[75] Jay-Z commented in an interview to Billboard that artists would be paid more by being streamed on Tidal than with Spotify, stating "Will artists make more money? Even if it means less profit for our bottom line? Absolutely."[17] In the same interview, he also stressed the service was for people "lower down on the food chain".[17]
On February 27, 2016, Yesh Music, LLC and John Emanuele from the band The American Dollar launched a $5 million class-action lawsuit that claimed Tidal had to compensate the band for any of the royalty payments accrued from the streaming of the band's 116 copyrighted songs. The suit also accused Tidal of using faulty numbers to payout artists while also having undercut these same individuals by 35%. A response from Tidal stated that they were indeed fully up to date on all royalties for the group and had removed said intellectual property from their servers.[76][77][78]
Controversies
[edit]In January 2017, Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv ('Today's Business') reported that it had received internal documents disclosing lower subscriber counts than had been publicly announced by Tidal and its owners, having only 350,000 users in September 2015 (contradicting a claim by Jay-Z that the service had a million users), and 850,000 subscribers by March 2016, rather than the 3 million claimed by the service (which may have been inflated by including users that were using a free trial).[79][80]
In May 2018, Dagens Næringsliv published a report accusing Tidal of intentionally falsifying streaming numbers for Beyoncé's Lemonade and Kanye West's The Life of Pablo albums and consequently paying inflated royalties to the artists' record labels. The newspaper supported its report with a comprehensive study[81] from Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Center for Cyber and Information Security in Gjøvik. Variety reported, the music service, which "has rarely shared its data publicly", being the exclusive streaming platform for both albums, "claimed that West's album had been streamed 250 million times in its first 10 days of release in February of 2016, while claiming it had just 3 million subscribers – a claim that would have meant every subscriber played the album an average of eight times per day; and that Beyonce's album was streamed 306 million times in its first 15 days of release in April of 2016."[82]
"Beyoncé's and Kanye West's listener numbers on Tidal have been manipulated to the tune of several hundred million false plays… which has generated massive royalty payouts at the expense of other artists." It bases this claim on data contained within a hard drive it obtained that "contains ‘billions of rows of [internal TIDAL data]: times and song titles, user IDs and country codes"
— Dagens Næringsliv (via Music Business Worldwide)[82]
The company denied any wrongdoing.[83] Following the allegations, Norwegian collection society TONO filed an official police complaint against Tidal. Danish music organization Koda has also announced that it would be conducting an independent audit of Tidal data.[84][needs update]. In 2023, all charges in the case were dropped by the Norwegian police as there was no evidence of any wrongdoing.[85]
MQA audio quality controversy
[edit]This section possibly contains original research. (January 2023) |
After skepticism of Tidal and MQA claims,[86] without independent verification, that MQA sound quality is better than standard PCM encoding, such as “MQA offers our members a more natural, believable, involving and immersive listening experience,”[87] GoldenSound, a YouTuber, conducted a series of tests[88][89] to publish non-music audio test signals to the platform which were rejected because "the MQA encoder was unable to encode the file."
GoldenSound then successfully passed the MQA encoding validation step by hiding test signals added to music, such as white noise, an impulse response, a square wave, a 32-tone test signal, and the RMAA test sequence interspersed with self-produced music. He uploaded a 44.1 kHz version and an 88.2 kHz version, which exceeded the encoder parameters meant to allow MQA processing with no audible loss, distortions, or compression.
After comparing the original test file to the MQA encoded file, it was shown that the MQA-encoded versions uploaded to Tidal had distorted many of the test signals and, on the 88.2 kHz version, had added high-frequency noise to the entire file. The non-encoded test files were compared to the same files uploaded to other streaming services, prominently Deezer, which had no loss or compression added, showing that the MQA encoding had reduced the file's quality. GoldenSound concluded that MQA is not lossless, that it differs from the original master, and that it's not at all how the artist intended for it to be listened to.[89]
The test files uploaded to Tidal were removed shortly after GoldenSound sent an e-mail to MQA questioning their legitimacy and their recommended methods for encoding to MQA, stating that there is no viable or easy method to test their claims about lossless-ness, even for indie artists. These tests by GoldenSound have been discredited by independent reviewers due to the use of test signals which violated the MQA encoder parameters that are met in music produced by record labels and other legitimate sources.[90][91]
Musician Neil Young removed his music from Tidal[when?] after it had been converted to MQA and labeled "Master". Young criticized the audio quality and the MQA business scheme: "TIDAL's master is a degradation of the original to make it fit in a box that collects royalties. That money ultimately is paid by listeners, I am not behind it. I am out of there. Gone. My masters are the original."[92] Young's discography has since returned to the service.[93]
In early April 2023, British company MQA Ltd, the owner of the MQA licence, announced that it had entered administration (bankruptcy protection).[94] Shortly after this, TIDAL's CEO Jesse Dorogusker stated that high-resolution FLAC streaming would be available either concurrently or as a replacement for MQA content.[95] This was followed with an Early Access Program on June 29, 2023[96] with hi-res FLAC streaming up to 192 kHz prioritized over the MQA version. Since then, Tidal has been replacing MQA content with hi-res FLACs and prioritizing FLAC streaming over MQA, with Tidal later announcing in June 2024 that they would discontinue support for MQA altogether the following month, July 2024.[97]
Model
[edit]Platforms
[edit]Tidal has apps available for Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Tesla[98] and Android compatible devices. Tidal is compatible with Apple TV, Roku,[99] CarPlay, Android Auto, Android TV, and Amazon Fire TV.[100]
Plans
[edit]Name | Audio quality | Bit rate | Codec |
---|---|---|---|
Free (US only)[101][39] | AAC at 160 kbps | 160 kbps | AAC (all supported operating systems) |
TIDAL[16] | AAC at 320 kbps, CD quality, Hi-Res PCM, MQA, Dolby Atmos, Sony 360 Reality Audio | up to 9216 kbps, 1411 kbps, 320 kbps, or 96 kbps[87] | AAC (all supported operating systems),[87] FLAC (Android/Windows/macOS/Web browser/desktop app), ALAC (iOS),[87] MQA/Master (Android/iOS/desktop app), MPEG-H 3D Audio (Android/iOS for songs available in Sony 360 Reality Audio), Dolby Digital Plus (Apple TV/Android TV/Amazon Fire TV for songs available in Dolby Atmos), Dolby AC-4 (select Android phones for songs available in Dolby Atmos) |
See also
[edit]- Comparison of on-demand music streaming services
- List of Internet radio stations
- List of online music databases
- Qobuz
References
[edit]- ^ "Which countries is TIDAL available?". TIDAL.
- ^ "Document". SEC.gov. Retrieved September 1, 2022.
- ^ a b "Tidal launches in five more European countries". Music Week. January 22, 2015. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
- ^ "How Much Music is Available in TIDAL?". Retrieved January 24, 2022.
- ^ Welch, Chris (March 5, 2024). "Tidal's subscription is getting simpler and cheaper — yes, you read that right". The Verge. Retrieved March 9, 2024.
- ^ "Audio Format Updates - Tidal Support".
- ^ Yoo, Noah (April 1, 2015). "The Full Transcript Of Jay Z's Tidal Q&A At The Clive Davis Institute Of Recorded Music". The Fader. Retrieved November 4, 2018.
- ^ a b Flanagan, Andrew (March 30, 2015). "It's Official: Jay Z's Historic Tidal Launches With 16 Artist Stakeholders". Billboard. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
- ^ "Square, Inc. Announces Plans to Acquire Majority Ownership Stake in TIDAL".
- ^ "Page 188 from Block, Inc. Annual Stockholder Meeting 2022" (PDF).
- ^ "Tidal Claims Three Million Subscribers". Billboard. March 29, 2016. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
- ^ "Tidal May Have Been Wildly Inflating Subscriber Numbers". Forbes. January 21, 2017. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
- ^ "Availability by Country – TIDAL". Tidal. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
- ^ "Tidal launches lossless music streaming in UK and US". The Telegraph. October 28, 2014. Archived from the original on January 11, 2022. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
- ^ "Jay Z Buys the Music Streaming Firm, Aspiro". The New York Times. March 13, 2015. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
- ^ a b Gilbert, David (March 30, 2015). "Tidal launch livestream: Watch Jay Z relaunching high fidelity music streaming service". International Business Times. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
- ^ a b c d Sanders, Sam (April 1, 2015). "Jay Z's Music Service, Tidal, Arrives With A Splash, And Questions Follow". Georgia Public Broadcasting. Archived from the original on August 15, 2019. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
- ^ "Uppgifter: Musikbolaget Tidal sparkar sina anställda i Sverige". Breakit. April 16, 2015. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
- ^ "Här är Tidals uttalande ord för ord". Breakit. April 16, 2015. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
- ^ "Tidal Is Selling Prince CDs and They're Not Cheap". BET. September 15, 2015. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
- ^ "Tidal appoints former SoundCloud exec as new CEO, its third in eight months". The Verge. December 2, 2015. Retrieved December 2, 2015.
- ^ Chmielewski, Dawn (August 7, 2017). "Tidal Hires New CEO: Is The Fourth Time a Charm?". Billboard.
- ^ "Tidal becomes first streaming service to offer MQA music". January 5, 2017. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
- ^ "MQA: Questions and Answers Some Real-World Comparisons". Stereophile.com. Stereophile. August 11, 2016. Archived from the original on August 14, 2016. Retrieved August 11, 2016.
- ^ Vincent, James (January 23, 2017). "Sprint just bought 33 percent of Jay-Z's Tidal streaming service". The Verge. Retrieved January 23, 2017.
- ^ "Jay Z's music-streaming service Tidal sells 33% stake to Sprint". VentureBeat. January 23, 2017. Retrieved January 23, 2017.
- ^ LeFebvre, Rob (September 5, 2017). "Mercedes-Benz is giving all its customers a year of Tidal HiFi". Endgadget. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
- ^ Saponara, Michael (March 29, 2018). "Nicki Minaj Appears in New Mercedes-Benz Commercial". XXL. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
- ^ "Music Distribution Made Seamless – Get Started – AvidPlay". Avid Technology. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
- ^ "TIDAL adds millions of MQA tracks, offering extensive catalogue of highest quality streaming audio". MQA Limited. November 12, 2020. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
- ^ Tarantola, Andrew (June 20, 2017). "Tidal's 'On Air' podcast network features five exclusive shows". Endgadget. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
- ^ HNHH Staff (April 24, 2018). "Fat Joe Sits Down With DJ Premier In 'Coca Vision,' Exclusively On Tidal". Hot New Hip Hop. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
- ^ George, Rachel (January 9, 2018). "Joey Bada$$ Teams Up With Tidal for '47 Minutes' Podcast". Billboard. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
- ^ "TIDAL ROLLS OUT INTERACTIVE CREDITS TO HIGHLIGHT ROLES OF SONGWRITERS, PRODUCERS, ENGINEERS & MUSICIANS". July 2, 2019.
- ^ "Tidal Credits".
- ^ "TIDAL Launches Enhanced Credits Feature To Spotlight All The Individuals Creating Music".
- ^ "Square, Inc. to buy majority of Tidal and put Jay-Z on board". ABC News / The Associated Press. Associated Press. March 4, 2021. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
- ^ Vincent, James (March 4, 2021). "Jack Dorsey's Block, Inc. is buying a majority stake in Jay-Z's streaming service Tidal". The Verge. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
- ^ a b c Welch, Chris (November 17, 2021). "Tidal launches free streaming and splits HiFi into two plans". The Verge. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
- ^ "Managing my subscription: TIDAL Download Store". TIDAL. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
- ^ "Jack Dorsey's Ax Hits Tidal Music Service With Over 10% of Staff Let Go". Bloomberg. December 6, 2023. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
- ^ Young, Alex (March 31, 2015). "TIDAL debuts with exclusive releases from The White Stripes, Daft Punk, and Arcade Fire". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
- ^ @TIDALHiFi (April 1, 2015). "Lots of exclusive content on the way, stay tuned. Awesome to hear you're loving TIDAL" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Allamani, Joana (June 25, 2019). "Why Jay Z Removed Most of His Music from Spotify". Investopedia.com. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
- ^ @Spotify (December 4, 2019). "Happy birthday, Hov Welcome back to Spotify" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Abbey, Lewis (March 31, 2015). "Tidal: Jay Z, Kanye West, Madonna, And More Announce New High-Fidelity Streaming Service". Inveterate. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
- ^ Tidal Live Press Conference Ft. Jay Z, Madonna, Beyonce and Kanye West!. March 30, 2015. Event occurs at 1:44. Archived from the original on November 2, 2021. Retrieved March 31, 2015 – via YouTube.
- ^ "Madonna, Minaj among owners of Jay Z's new streaming service, Tidal". CBC News. Associated Press. March 31, 2015. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
- ^ "Jay Z promotes 'artist-owned' music streaming brand". Nkojomensah. March 31, 2015. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
- ^ Lunden, Ingrid (March 30, 2015). "Tidal Confirms Partnership With Sprint Owner Softbank For Its Artist Co-Owned Music Service". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
- ^ Atkinson, Claire (April 1, 2015). "Sprint, Softbank purchase stake in Jay Z's Tidal". New York Post. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
- ^ "Lil Wayne Joins TIDAL". BallerStatus.com. June 4, 2015. Archived from the original on July 1, 2018. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
- ^ "T.I. Signs Distribution Deal With Roc Nation, Becomes Latest Co-Owner of Tidal". Billboard.
- ^ "Kanye West Splits With Jay-Z's Tidal: Report". Us. July 2, 2017. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
- ^ Halperin, Shirley (July 5, 2017). "Kanye West Takes Jay-Z's Tidal to Task Over Money Owed". Variety. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
- ^ Carson, Biz (July 2, 2017). "Kanye West is reportedly splitting from Jay-Z's Tidal streaming service". Business Insider. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
- ^ "Beyoncé's Anniversary Present To Jay Z Is This 'Die With You' Video On Tidal". MTV News. April 4, 2015. Archived from the original on April 6, 2015. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
- ^ @TIDAL (April 5, 2015). "We've got it first! Watch the sneak peak[sic] of @Madonna's new video Ghosttown on http://tidal.com" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Goodman, Jessica (January 27, 2016). "Rihanna: Anti released on Tidal". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
- ^ McAlone, Nathan (August 12, 2016). "The unpredictable and dramatic story of Jay Z's Tidal, the music service trying to fight Apple and Spotify". Business Insider. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
- ^ Stephen, Bijan (June 18, 2018). "Beyoncé and Jay Z's EVERYTHING IS LOVE hits Spotify and Apple Music". The Verge. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
- ^ Aswad, Jem (June 29, 2017). "Jay-Z's New Album, '4:44,' Has Dropped — But Sources Say Tidal's Exclusive Will Only Last a Week". Variety. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
- ^ Jacobs, Lola (June 4, 2018). "Nicki Minaj, Post Malone To Headline 'Made In America' 2018". Vibe. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
- ^ Iasimone, Ashley (October 17, 2017). "TIDAL X Benefit Concert: Watch the Live Stream". Billboard. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
- ^ Espinoza, Joshua (June 9, 2018). "TIDAL Will Livestream Hot 97's Summer Jam Featuring Meek Mill, Lil Wayne, ASAP Ferg, and More". Complex. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
- ^ Honeycutt, Shante (April 10, 2018). "TIDAL to Livestream The Roots, Common, Brittany Howard and More at the Concert for Peace and Justice". Billboard. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
- ^ "Jay Z's TIDAL App Falls Out Of Top 700 iPhone Apps Chart". BallerStatus.com. April 21, 2015. Archived from the original on April 25, 2015. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
- ^ Peoples, Glenn (March 31, 2015). "3 Reasons Why Jay Z's Tidal Is Good for the Music Business -- Even If It Fails". Billboard. Retrieved November 4, 2018.
- ^ Peters, Micah (March 31, 2015). "3 reasons why Jay Z's new Tidal streaming service is stupid". For The Win USA Today. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
- ^ "Lily Allen fears Tidal will cripple music industry". UTV. March 31, 2015. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
- ^ "Jay Z Announces "Tidal X: Jaÿ-Z B-Sides" Concert Featuring Rare Music". Pitchfork. April 29, 2015. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
- ^ Kleinman, Zoe (February 16, 2016). "Kanye West album 'pirated 500,000 times' already". BBC News. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
- ^ Jenkins, Nash (April 1, 2016). "Kanye West's The Life of Pablo Is Finally Available On Spotify". Time. Archived from the original on August 25, 2017. Retrieved January 13, 2018.
- ^ "Kanye West quits TIDAL, claiming service owes him $3m". Music Business Worldwide (report). July 2, 2017. Retrieved July 4, 2017.
- ^ "Mint Royale on Tidal streaming". storify.com. March 31, 2015. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
- ^ "Tidal fires its CFO and COO". The Verge. March 2016. Retrieved March 3, 2016.
- ^ "Jay Z and Tidal Are Reportedly Facing a Lawsuit Over Failing To Pay Artist Royalties (UPDATE)". Complex. Retrieved March 3, 2016.
- ^ "Yesh Music v. S Carter Enterprises - class action complaint royalties TIDAL.pdf". Retrieved March 3, 2016 – via Scribd.
- ^ "Jay Z's Tidal Streaming Service May Have Inflated Subscriber Numbers (Report)". Variety. January 20, 2017. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
- ^ "Tidal may have been inflating its subscriber numbers". The Verge. January 20, 2017. Retrieved November 4, 2018.
- ^ Johnsen, Jan William; Franke, Katrin (April 10, 2018). "Digital Forensics Report for Dagens Næringsliv" (PDF). Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
- ^ a b Aswad, Jem (May 9, 2018). "Tidal Accused of Falsifying Beyonce and Kanye West Streaming Numbers". Variety. Retrieved November 4, 2018.
- ^ "Tidal accused of manipulating Beyonce and Kanye West data". BBC News. May 10, 2018. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
- ^ Smirke, Richard (May 14, 2018). "Norwegian PRO Files Complaint Against Tidal Over Fake Streaming Allegations". Billboard. Retrieved November 4, 2018.
- ^ "Charges dropped in Tidal case". Økokrim. June 27, 2023. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
- ^ "MQA: A Review of controversies, concerns, and cautions". Audiophile Style. March 2, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
- ^ a b c d "What Audio Quality Do TIDAL HiFi Plans Offer?". Tidal Support. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
- ^ "Tidal 'HiFi' is NOT lossless". GoldenSound. November 29, 2021. Retrieved February 12, 2022.
- ^ a b "I published music on Tidal to test MQA - MQA Review". GoldenSound. April 15, 2021. Retrieved February 12, 2022.
- ^ "MQA again". Stereophile.com. June 6, 2021.
- ^ "MQA Deep Dive - I published music on tidal to test MQA". Audio Science Review. March 25, 2021. Retrieved April 22, 2023.
- ^ "Tidal Misleading Listeners". Neil Young. Retrieved February 12, 2022.
- ^ "Apple Music, Tidal promote Neil Young after Spotify removes his music". NME. January 28, 2022. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
- ^ McKerrell, Harry (April 14, 2023). "MQA has gone into administration: what does this mean for Tidal and supported products?". What Hi-Fi?. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
- ^ "So many questions ab…". April 11, 2023.
- ^ TIDAL_Jesse (June 29, 2023). "HiRes FLAC is almost here". r/TIdaL. Retrieved February 7, 2024.
- ^ Song, Victoria (June 21, 2024). "Tidal is revamping its lossless and immersive audio formats". The Verge. Retrieved July 3, 2024.
- ^ "TIDAL and Tesla". Tidal. Retrieved September 16, 2024.
- ^ Humphries, Matthew (September 27, 2019). "Tidal Brings Its Lossless Music Streaming to Roku". PC Magazine. Retrieved October 1, 2019.
- ^ Estrada, Zac (March 22, 2018). "Tidal launches Amazon Fire TV app, adds Android Auto compatibility". The Verge. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
- ^ "Sound Quality | Tidal". Tidal. Retrieved on February 16, 2022.