The push for TIDAL is not letting up any time soon.
Wednesday afternoon, Jay Z, along with Tidal executive Vania Schlogel, discussed his new streaming venture with a group of students at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. In a Q&A session, Hov answered questions delivered by NYU professor Errol Kolosine and prepared by students about everything from the company’s equity structure, the contents of the documents signed during Tidal’s press conference, and whether or not Jay believes that one day there will only be one streaming service.
Read excerpts below:
What do you hope that Tidal will do for the younger generation that other services have not?
JAY Z: I guess the most ethereal answer is just to improve the quality of life, to improve the level of art. I think it’s important to build up music again, and it’s an important part of peoples’ lives. It’ll enrich your life in some way.
Do you think you can reverse the trend of peoples’ valuation of music?
JAY Z: Absolutely. If a person can pay $6 for a bottle of water, something that used to be free, if someone can do that? I can definitely show you why you should pay for Lauryn Hill’s album. There are 14 reasons, it’s incredible. Someone’s changed our mindset to believe that that bottle of water is worth $6.
How do you take into account the devices and headphones that people are listening to high fidelity audio on? If I have a pair of $10 headphones, how would that compare? Do you guys maybe see a partnership with a headphone company in the future?
JAY Z: We’re exploring those opportunities as well. And I think that if you have a $10 pair of headphones, you should probably buy the $9.99 plan. And if you’re like Vania’s artist friends and you deck your whole house out with hi-fi, then you probably want the hi-fi plan. But we’re definitely looking at opportunities; we have like four people looking at three or four headphone companies.
Tidal is making a strong effort to bring the value of music back into the forefront of the discussion. How far is the company willing to go to convey that message?
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 shit.” 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. I’ve got another great idea that I wish I could share with you all about that sort of thing in particular, and it’ll be coming soon, in the next couple of months, and hopefully it’ll be exactly what you want.
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