It’s about time Tidal got some good publicity.
The controversial, Jay Z-owned streaming service announced that it has teamed with Prince to live stream his Rally 4 Peace benefit concert in Baltimore, which was announced following weeks of riots and protests surrounding the death of Freddie Gray. The concert takes place on Sunday, and, while Tidal has gotten criticism for not allowing a free tier for users, this stream will be available to anyone on Tidal’s website, subscriber or not. Tidal has also agreed to “match funds” of all donations for Baltimore youth charities made through its site.
Despite Jay Z’s pleads to the contrary, Tidal has not seen much success since its launch in late March. The company’s mission of giving artists control over their music is fine and dandy, but the inability to retain exclusive content has made their business model impractical, until now.
Any song Tidal claims to be “exclusive” will eventually leak over the internet. A live concert, however, is a piece of musical content Tidal can claim legitimate exclusivity to.
Will one concert save Tidal and take down Spotify? Of course not, but this is a step in the right direction for the maligned streaming service.
