Rapper Jay-Z recently launched ‘Tidal’, a subscription only streaming service that was backed by many musicians, and now the rapper is encouraging those who are taking part to launch exclusives through the website to get the public to sign up. The whole system has proven to be quite controversial and many musicians have spoke out against the new service. Here are 5 stars who won’t be signing up and the reasons why they don’t like the idea.
50 Cent
Rapper 50 Cent thinks people won’t be attracted to the service: “We probably could’ve did something more exciting if they reached out, because the people you saw there don’t even own the rights to their music. So they can’t say it’s gonna come out of Tidal. It has to go everywhere. So why would you actually buy Tidal to get something that would be everywhere else?”
Brandon Flowers
Brandon was never asked to be a part of Tidal and didn’t want to be involved either: “I never got the phone call, which I’m glad about. I don’t care about it. I saw the launch with all the celebrities there and that in itself made me not want to be a part of it. I’m glad not to be there.”
Lily Allen
Lily thinks people won’t sign up because it costs too much: “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… …sending traffic to torrent sites. Up and coming (not yet millionaires) artists are going to suffer as a result.”
Mumford & Sons
Mumford & Sons thinks it’s a corporate move to make money: “We wouldn’t have joined it anyway, even if they had asked. We don’t want to be tribal. And when they say it’s artist-owned, it’s owned by those rich, wealthy artists. What I’m not into is the tribalistic aspect of it – people trying to corner bits of the market, and put their face on it. That’s just commercial bull****.”
Noel Gallagher
Noel thinks those involved are blindly following Jay Z: “I thought that the people on the stage might want to be a little bit aware that they don’t look like Jay Z’s minions. Madonna was pretty cool the way she cocked her leg up on that desk and signed the [declaration]. I think ultimately with the spiel they came out with, it was like, ‘Do these people think they’re the f***in’ Avengers? They’re going to save the f***in’ [world].'”
