Jay-Z, Kanye West, Beyonce and Madonna have launched an "artist-owned" music and video streaming service.
Rihanna, Arcade Fire's Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, Jack White, J Cole, Nicki Minaj, Deadmau5, Daft Punk and Alicia Keys all attended the live-streamed launch in New York, each signing "a declaration".
The website will compete with Spotify and is hoped to "forever change the course of music history'', according to Keys who gave a speech at yesterday's event yesterday. The platform will offer exclusive music content to fans.
It is an update of Norwegian streaming site Tidal and described by Keys as "the first artist-owned global music and entertainment platform". She pledged to "create a better service and a better experience for both fans and artists … where we will deliver exclusive experiences that cannot be found anywhere else".
One of Jay-Z's companies acquired Tidal earlier this month for $56million. He hopes that the website will offer musicians a better deal.
"We didn't like the direction music was going and thought maybe we could get in and strike an honest blow," he said. "Will artists make more money? Even if it means less profit for our bottom line, absolutely. That's easy for us. We can do that. Less profit for our bottom line, more money for the artist; fantastic."
SOURCE: BILLBOARD
