If you’ve been keeping up with the Tidal movement you might have known OVO front-man Drake was supposed to be one of the original 16 artist “partners” of Tidal, but reportedly Drizzy pulled out at the very last minute, “as late as two days before its March 30 launch event in New York,” according to Billboard and has now instead turned to one of Jay Z and Tidal’s biggest rivals: Apple.
With Apple expected to reveal a new music-streaming service at a conference next week to take on the likes of Spotify, Pandora, and Tidal; one of its big draws is expected to be the use of celebrities to curate playlists, produce exclusive content, and generally be a “presence” on the platform. Having hired BBC DJ Zane Lowe earlier this year to recruit artists and help spearhead these efforts.
There were earlier rumours that Apple was offering Drake as much as $19 million to be featured on its new service, but this figure has been denied by a source Billboard spoke with. “Apple doesn’t normally pay artists for those types of collaborations,” the source said.
$19 mill or not (Drizzy was sitting on $25 at 25, who’s counting?), Drake — along with Pharrell Williams — has now apparently been recruited for the platform which, according to a recent report, will cost about $10 a month.
As the music-streaming space gets increasingly crowded, debate is heating up about how consumers should access music online. Several musicians have slammed the approach Tidal is taking but established industry leader Spotify has also come under fire, with Taylor Swift pulling her music from the platform in a highly public move late last year, contending that its free, ad-supported listening option failed to value art properly.
Jay Z has shot back against other streaming services rapping, “You know when I work I ain’t your slave right … you know I came in this game independent right, Tidal, my own label same difference … Spotify is 9 million, they ain’t say shit.”
Yikes. Could Drizzy be starting the next music war?