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New Post has been published on http://www.newsnish.com/technology/accessories/jay-zs-tidal-streaming-service-launches-with-blue-avatars/

Jay Z’s Tidal Streaming Service Launches With Blue Avatars

If you follow a number of major artists on Facebook or Twitter, you may have noticed some of them have changed their profile picture and cover photo to light blue/teal.

All of them have posted a message about making music history and included the hashtag #TIDALforALL.

Jay Z wants you to know that Tidal, the Scandinavian high-fidelity streaming service that he bought earlier this month, is a big deal. So he didn’t just get some of music’s biggest stars to tweet about the service’s big relaunch, which is happening today. He got them all to change their social media avatars (on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, in addition to Twitter) to a violent light-blue square and ask their fans for “support,” as if this was a protest movement or something. That’s pretty gross, Jay!

What may be worrying for the likes of Spotify and other companies is the backing it has. Artists like Kayne West, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Jack White, and Madonna are backing the service, and it’s believed that Taylor Swift, who famously pulled her albums off Spotify late last year, will also put her music on the service.

A spokesperson for Big Machine Records told the BBC that the singer’s back catalogue appears on all streaming services that require a subscription fee.

Tidal is relaunching in the U.S. around 5PM eastern today, according to a countdown clock on the streaming service’s site. The service doesn’t have a free option like Spotify; it’s going for $19.99 a month for lossless hi-fidelity streaming quality, or $9.99 for standard audio quality. The service has deals with every major label, and it’s promising curated playlists and editorial content, as well. Right now, it has every Taylor Swift album streaming, whereas Swift pulled all her music from Spotify last year. And Jay is making a “special announcement” at a launch event in NYC this afternoon. It seems entirely possible that Jay’s Roc Nation management clients Kanye West and/or Rihanna could surprise-release their new albums as Tidal exclusives.

In the case of Spotify, it pays an average “per stream” fee to right holders – mainly the labels in this case – of between $0.006 and $0.0084. The amount paid per stream depends on the country a song is streamed, the number of paid users listening to it, the relative premium pricing, the currency value in different countries and an artist’s loyalty rates.

Ultimately, it means that a song would need to be streamed one million times to make at least $6,000 and when that’s broken up between Spotify, labels, and artists, it’s usually the artist that gets a fraction of this sum.

In the case of Spotify, it pays an average “per stream” fee to right holders – mainly the labels in this case – of between $0.006 and $0.0084. The amount paid per stream depends on the country a song is streamed, the number of paid users listening to it, the relative premium pricing, the currency value in different countries and an artist’s loyalty rates.

Ultimately, it means that a song would need to be streamed one million times to make at least $6,000 and when that’s broken up between Spotify, labels, and artists, it’s usually the artist that gets a fraction of this sum.