|
Music News: TIDAL's Complete Press Conference
Member Since: 1/5/2014
Posts: 2,512
|
TIDAL's Complete Press Conference
Quote:
How difficult is it for an indie artist to put their music onto TIDAL? Services like Spotify can be very difficult, if not on a label or going through a digital distributor. Does the same apply for TIDAL?
V: There is that difficulty, I know, with other services. I'm not a musician, but some of my friends are and they tell me "I had to go through an aggregator, I had to wait six months for this and that and nobody paid attention to me." And these are all things that we hear and that are very personal to us, and that we are addressing. The truth of the matter is, we took control of this company a few weeks ago. We're still a very young, nascent company and we have a lot of initiatives that we're working on, especially when it comes to indie talent, emerging talent, giving people visibility, giving people a forum to put their music up and giving them control of their distribution and their creative content, how they want to communicate with their fans. Those are all initiatives, and that one specifically is something that we're working on addressing.
J: As well as having a discovery program, where established artists can take things that they like and just showcase them. It's all about paying it forward and working very cyclically and discovering new music. Imagine if Win from Arcade Fire puts up an artist that he discovered in Haiti and he had this idea, actually, I don't want to step on his idea and through the curation process gets something really good and introduces it to the world. And then the world is inspired by that sound. It gets a little ethereal from there, but just the possibilities of what TIDAL can do are really exciting, on a creative front.
|
Quote:
How will TIDAL change the industry with regards to artists' bottom line? Spotify has received much criticism for the portion of revenue that the artists receive through their music being streamed there. Is TIDAL a direct response to this criticism?
Jay Z: Not a direct response. You don't want to single anyone out, per se but currently we pay the highest royalty percentage. And there is no free tier service. If you have five people paying for music, and ten people consuming it, then the artist starts at -5. We start at 1. There is no free tier and we'll pay the highest royalty percentage. That's how we'll change the industry, as well as through a number of other things which I'm sure you guys are gonna ask about, so, I don't want to go too into it on the first question.
|
Quote:
What exactly were the contents of the document that was signed during the press conference?
J: Just a declaration that we're going to work really hard to improve what's going on in the pay system as we know it. You guys may have seen some of the stats like, Aloe Blacc had a song that was streamed 168 million times and he got paid $4,000. For us, it's not us standing here saying we're poor musicians. If you provide a service, you should be compensated for it. And not just artists just think about the writers and the producers. Like an artist can go do a Pepsi deal or something I shouldn't have singled out Pepsi but they can go get an endorsement deal somewhere and you know, go on tour and sustain themselves, it helps their lifestyle. But what about the writers who do that for a living? The producers? That's it for them.
|
Quote:
I think we'll lose a lot of great writers in the future because you have to do something else, because you can't sustain a lifestyle, and I think that's a shame. That someone has that talent and just isn't being compensated because someone needed a business to profit off of their work. And we've seen that time and time again, we've seen it time and time again. Companies that pretend to care about music and really care about other things whether it be hardware, whether it be advertising and now they look at music as a loss leader. And we know music isn't a loss leader, music is an important part of our lives.
|
Read more at:
http://www.thefader.com/2015/04/01/t...recorded-music
|
|
|
Member Since: 12/15/2009
Posts: 23,385
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/5/2014
Posts: 2,512
|
So basically we should expect a lot of good things.
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 21,331
|
turning those tides
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 9,522
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 15,836
|
All of this is what i expected when i knew about this project. Glad to see that everything is going right as planned despite the criticism
|
|
|
Member Since: 3/21/2012
Posts: 55,134
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 3/5/2011
Posts: 13,543
|
dd @ a lot of the things people on ATRL were confused about being answered and none of y'all have anything to say now
|
|
|
Member Since: 4/12/2012
Posts: 8,550
|
Will there be an actual computer application instead of the website alone?
|
|
|
Member Since: 4/29/2012
Posts: 29,059
|
TIDAL:"We pay the highest royalties fees" and clocks the hat
This is very interesting. Basically clocking all the negative comments. This should have been adressed at the press conference instead of them just signing a paper and leaving us in the dark.
Quote:
Jay-Z: "There is no free tier and we'll pay the highest royalty percentage. "
SCHLOGEL: There is that difficulty, I know, with other services. I'm not a musician, but some of my friends are and they tell me "I had to go through an aggregator, I had to wait six months for this and that and nobody paid attention to me."
" We're still a very young, nascent company and we have a lot of initiatives that we're working on, especially when it comes to indie talent, emerging talent, giving people visibility, giving people a forum to put their music up and giving them control of their distribution and their creative content, how they want to communicate with their fans. Those are all initiatives, and that one specifically is something that we're working on addressing."
The royalty rates will be higher than other services. In addition to that, there won't be that free tier that's been depressing the recorded music industry, and frankly been a part of what's been driving the downfall of the recorded music industry, is that free consumption. Music is not free, fundamentally. Someone came in and produced that beat, someone came in and sang that song, someone wrote that song. Someone came in to clean the studio afterwards. There is an entire ecosystem around this, and we've somehow come to believe that it's okay to pay hundreds for consumer electronics but to pay nothing for the music that helps sell it. It's around the education process, with that there will higher royalties. And then another point that I want to touch on that's really important philosophically, not just from a dollars and cents perspective, is the equity ownership. All artists who come in and this is an open platform, an open invitation will participate in the equity upside. And that is important, too, because of that participation in the process, by having a board seat, by actually being an owner in this. It's a different type of involvement
JAY Z: Just a declaration that we're going to work really hard to improve what's going on in the pay system as we know it. You guys may have seen some of the stats like, Aloe Blacc had a song that was streamed 168 million times and he got paid $4,000. For us, it's not us standing here saying we're poor musicians. If you provide a service, you should be compensated for it. And not just artists just think about the writers and the producers. Like an artist can go do a Pepsi deal or something I shouldn't have singled out Pepsi but they can go get an endorsement deal somewhere and you know, go on tour and sustain themselves, it helps their lifestyle. But what about the writers who do that for a living? The producers? That's it for them.
There are dozens more than dozens, there are thousands and thousands of those sorts of stories of someone who worked at their craft, worked really hard at the studio, they did their job and people loved it and consumed it and they just went home. I think we'll lose a lot of great writers in the future because you have to do something else, because you can't sustain a lifestyle, and I think that's a shame. That someone has that talent and just isn't being compensated because someone needed a business to profit off of their work. And we've seen that time and time again, we've seen it time and time again. Companies that pretend to care about music and really care about other things whether it be hardware, whether it be advertising and now they look at music as a loss leader. And we know music isn't a loss leader, music is an important part of our lives.
V : Someone asked me the other day, "Well, isn't free streaming better than piracy?" And I responded "In any other industry, are you having the conversation around 'Yeah, but, if they're gonna steal anyways shouldn't you be giving it to them for free?' Would you have that in the auto industry, the fashion industry, the tech industry? No! You don't just give it away for free because people might steal it!
Jay: That opinion came before we even explained what it was "This thing is horrible!
What is it?" You know? You never hear Tim Cook's net worth whenever he tries to sell you something. Steve Jobs, God bless, he had to have been pretty rich nobody's ever said, "Oh, the rich getting richer! I won't buy an iPhone!" Yeah, right. It's not about being pretentious; again, this is a thing for all artists. You pay $9.99 for Spotify, so why not $9.99 for Tidal. We're not asking for anything else, we're just saying that we'll spread that money to artists more fairly. We're not saying anything other than that, and we're saying that we're in a position to bring light to this issue. We're using our power that way. And of course there are greater causes, of course. This is not mutually exclusive there are other problems, real problems going on in the world. We don't miss the problems; we try to take care of them all. Imagine the President: he has to take care of ISIS, gay rights, equal pay for women, discrimination all at the same time! So, you can't say "You started this site when you should be out in St. Louis!" It's like, okay, J. Cole is out in St. Louis. I wasn't in St. Louis, but I was in the governor's office. Because, we can march all day long but if the laws don't change, then we'll be marching again and it'll just be a different slogan on the shirt, and that's a greater tragedy as well.
JAY Z: Our whole thing is transparency I think there does need to be transparency. If you went to Bordeaux or something, to look at wine, you'd probably think, "Oh, this is some bougie ****." But if you went and you saw the craftsmanship, the work that went behind it, and someone's gotta be picking the grapes, and the whole thing if you saw the process of what it takes to make an album, maybe you'd have a great appreciation for it as well. So I just think that there needs to be a bit more transparency.
Some artists have equity stakes in the company is it possible for independent artists to get equity in the company? How is that determined? SCHLOGEL: Absolutely. We've set up a stock appreciation rights program already it's nascent, but it's in place. And as we go along, we're working with the artist founders and figuring out how exactly to grow and evolve it going forward, and figuring out how we will set up this program and send out that messaging, especially to independent artists.
|
What do the haters have to say now?
http://www.thefader.com/2015/04/01/t...recorded-music
|
|
|
ATRL Senior Member
Member Since: 8/1/2012
Posts: 27,547
|
Don't they only pay the higher royalties if you subscribe to the $20 one?
|
|
|
Member Since: 4/3/2011
Posts: 7,281
|
This is so dumb argument from a businessman. Consumers dont care about that.
Nobody pay for items because the brand 1 pay better salaries than the brand 2.
People only care about what they will gain from a product or service.
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/28/2009
Posts: 20,640
|
Quote:
Originally posted by FreeBitch
This is so dumb argument. Consumers dont care about that.
|
.
|
|
|
Member Since: 9/3/2011
Posts: 22,014
|
Another essay-sized interview full of bitching and moaning that has yet to tell us what we get out of the deal.
Yeah I'm just going to cancel when my trial is up
|
|
|
Member Since: 4/29/2012
Posts: 29,059
|
Quote:
Originally posted by FreeBitch
This is so dumb argument from a businessman. Consumers dont care about that.
Nobody pay for items because the brand 1 pay better salaries than the brand 2.
People only care about what they will gain from a product or service.
|
They've discuss that in the article but I choose to post those excerpts cause we our a pop music forum and we should be supporting music and it's futur.
|
|
|
Member Since: 6/19/2012
Posts: 29,579
|
Quote:
Originally posted by Goddess of Love.
Don't they only pay the higher royalties if you subscribe to the $20 one?
|
Yeah, that's what I thought.
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 37,384
|
If people bought stuff based on what employees got paid Walmart wouldn't exist and clothing and food would be 5 times more expensive. Does Jay Z not realize this isn't how the world works?
|
|
|
Member Since: 4/29/2012
Posts: 15,977
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 8/16/2010
Posts: 19,703
|
Quote:
Originally posted by Lucas32
|
Exactly. What they're trying to do (selling us) is not even possible.
|
|
|
Member Since: 10/7/2010
Posts: 17,418
|
Clock em Jay
|
|
|
|
|