After days of backlash from artists, the media and general public, Jay Z has come to the defense of Tidal in a series of Tweets on Sunday (April 26).
Using the hashtag “TidalFacts,” Jay Z sent out numerous tweets about the service, noting that the “iTunes Store wasn’t built in a day” and that Tidal pays “75% royalty rate to ALL artists, writers and producers — not just the founding members on stage.”
EDM star Deadmau5 also came out in support of Tidal on Sunday, tweeting, “Despite whatever dumbshit preconceptions you may or may not have about tidal, im still behind it. Im in it for industry growth, not PR.”
Hov’s twitter defense could be in response to a Page Six article that cited sources who said that Apple is interfering with Tidal in an attempt to crush the service ahead of Apple’s Beats Music relaunch this summer.
As previously reported, Tidal — which launched on March 30 — had fallen out of Apple’s top 750 apps, after a peak at No. 83 on April 7 (that data according to tracking site App Annie). According to the Posts’ private source,
Apple “deliberately took a long time to approve Tidal iOS app updates. Tidal had a new app on Android on April 15, but still hasn’t received approval for Apple’s iOS app store.”
Robert Kondrk, vice president of iTunes Content, has also declared war on artists who sign up with Tidal. A source told us, “Robert told execs at Universal Music Group that Rihanna and other Tidal artists’ music would not be promoted as featured artists on iTunes if they put exclusive music out on Tidal.”
The source added that after Rihanna’s song “American Oxygen” debuted on Tidal, there were technical problems with her music on iTunes. The source explained, “Rihanna’s songs were scrambled and were out of commission for periods of time.”
Take a look at the tweets below (First tweet starts at BOTTOM of page):
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