TIDAL, Jay Z’s pay-to-play streaming service we love to hate, has just unveiled several new additions to its roster of “features”. First, Lil Wayne has joined the team as both a co-owner and artist, releasing an exclusive track titled “Glory“. If you want to hear the track but don’t feel like spending $20, YouTube is your friend.
Next, TIDAL announced a partnership with Live Nation’s Ticketmaster service. The TIDAL app will now include native ticket purchasing, making it more convenient for users to get live access to the artists they listen to. There’s a catch, however: Jay Z’s service will be keeping a portion of the ticket sales for themselves. In the future, they even plan to implement merchandise sales, indie film streams, and other movies. It seems that they’ve realized the mistakes made on the music streaming front, and are now turning their attention outwards to grasp at any straws they can to keep them afloat.
Finally, it was announced that student discounts will be implemented to help those in school afford the service. Students will be able to pay $4.99 for the basic service and $9.99 for the top tier. TIDAL: the heroic Robin Hood figure of streaming services.
Desktop clients for the service have also been rolled out for both Mac and Windows, similar to those of Spotify and Rdio.
