Tidal unveils its 17 artist owners and Australian price tier

Today's relaunch of Tidal unveiled the 16 artist co-owners who have acquired the Scandinavian streaming service, along with rap mogul Jay Z.

Tidal's artist owners are Alicia Keys, Win Butler and Régine Chassagne of Arcade Fire, Beyoncé, Calvin Harris, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Daft Punk, Jack White, Jason Aldean, J. Cole, Jay Z, Kanye West, deadmau5, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna and Usher.

Each artist signed the following declaration onstage at the launch event, held at Skylight at Moynihan Station in Manhattan. The statement reads:

Throughout history, every movement began with a few individuals banding together with a shared vision – a vision to change the status quo.

That vision came to life with a first step. Our first step begins today through the platform TIDAL.

TIDAL is an artist majority owned company with a mission to reestablish the value of music and protect the sustainability of the music industry rooted in creativity and expression.

As part of our vision to introduce change to the current system, we will continue expanding this platform into an all-encompassing destination in the coming months. We are working diligently everyday to enhance the overall service.

Today, the site incorporates high quality sound, video and exclusive editorial, but there are more features on the way. In time, TIDAL will not just be a streaming service but an immersive platform with enhanced experiences.

With TIDAL we are making a commitment to build a platform that reflects ideas contributed directly from artists, providing an enriched experience. Music presented and heard the way the artists intended.

We want our mission with TIDAL to spark conversation and lay a foundation for tomorrow’sburgeoning stars.

Our movement is being led by a few who are inviting all to band together for a common cause, a movement to change the status quo.

Today marks the next step.

Jay Z's Project Panther Bidco, a subsidiary of his S. Carter Enterprises, bought Tidal’s parent company Aspiro for US$56 million. Since then, he’s worked with its CEO Andy Chen, to give it more of a global presence and increase its subscriber base. Earlier this month, he amalgamated Tidal with Aspiro’s other music streaming services WiMP under the Tidal name.

During the launch it was revealed that Tidal has entered a partnership with telco Sprint and Sprint’s Japanese telecommunications company owner, Softbank. TMN has reached out to Tidal for information on its Australian telco partner.

It's unclear whether Tidal's royalty payment rates will be transparent however with no freemium tier its biggest competitor should be Apple's soon-to-be-launched Beats Music service, which is expected to land in June at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).

Australian users have been asked to "enjoy its extensive library of 25 million-plus tracks, 75,000 music videos, and curated editorial articles, features and interviews written by experts," for $23.99 a month, more than double the monthly price for a premium subscription to market leaders Rdio and Spotify. Australian users have also been offered the $9.99/month “premium” standard definition service, which is on offer in the US. A representative from Tidal told TMN the service has no telco partners in Australia.

Tidal is available in Australia, US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Poland Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, South Africa, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Singapore, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, France, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Turkey, Sweden, Slovenia, Greece, Romania, Cyprus, Malta and Hong Kong.