Tidal (streaming service)
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Home screen of Tidal for Android app
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| Opened | October 28, 2014 |
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| Created by | Aspiro |
| Platforms |
Microsoft Windows OS X iOS Android |
| Format | AAC, FLAC, ALAC, MQA |
| Catalogue | 46 million songs |
| Availability | 52 countries |
| Alexa rank |
 10,899 (November 2017[update]) |
Tidal (stylized as TIDAL) is a subscription-based music streaming service that combines lossless audio and high-definition music videos with exclusive content and special features on music. The service is maintained by the Norwegian company Aspiro AB.
The service has over 48.5 million tracks and 175,000 music videos. Tidal claims to pay the highest percentage of royalties to music artists and songwriters within the music streaming market, while offering two levels of digital music streaming service: Tidal Premium (lossy quality) and Tidal HiFi (lossless CD quality – FLAC-based 16-Bit/44.1 kHz – and MQA). Tidal was launched in 2014 by Norwegian public company Aspiro. It has distribution agreements with all of the three major labels, in addition to many indies. In the first quarter of 2015, the parent company Aspiro was acquired by Project Panther Bidco Ltd., which was dissolved on August 2, 2016 which was owned by Shawn "JAY-Z" Carter.
Following the acquisition of Aspiro by Jay-Z in March 2015, a mass-marketing campaign was introduced to relaunch Tidal. Multiple music artists changed their social media profiles design blue, and posted the phrase "#TIDALforAll" on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. A press conference took place on March 30, 2015, introducing sixteen music artists to the stage, including Jay-Z, who were all co-owners and stakeholders in Tidal. The service was promoted as being the first artist-owned streaming service with the goal of returning the value proposition to music.
While some observers praised the impressive high fidelity, lossless audio quality, and the higher subscription fees which would result in higher royalties to the artists and songwriters, others felt the high subscription fees and exclusive Tidal content from the artists involved could result in an increase of music piracy. Tidal has claimed to have over 3 million subscribers. although there has been doubt over the veracity of those claims. Tidal currently operates in 52 countries.Sprint purchased 33% of Tidal on January 23, 2017 for a reported $200 million.
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