Jay-Z and 15 artist-owners launch Tidal

Why it matters

March 30, 2015. Jay-Z held a press conference in Manhattan announcing the relaunch of Tidal, an existing streaming service he had just purchased through his $56 million acquisition of the Norwegian-Swedish company Aspiro. The relaunch was framed as the music industry's first artist-owned streaming platform, with sixteen co-owners from across pop music joining Jay onstage at the announcement. The co-owner list was the press-conference centerpiece: Beyoncé, Madonna, Kanye West, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Daft Punk, Jack White, Chris Martin, Calvin Harris, Deadmau5, Arcade Fire, Usher, Alicia Keys, J. Cole, and Jason Aldean. Tidal's commercial position was, almost immediately, complicated; the service struggled to compete with Spotify and Apple Music on user growth, and most of the co-owners did not contribute the kind of exclusive content the launch had promised. The platform did host some major exclusives over the next several years (Beyoncé's Lemonade in 2016 was the biggest). Jay sold Tidal to Square (now Block) for approximately $300 million in 2021. You can argue Tidal did not work as the artist-owned alternative it positioned as. You can also argue the conversation it started has been consequential anyway.