It was just one year ago that Jay Z gathered music superstars like Beyonce, Madonna, Kanye West, Rihanna, Daft Punk and more to help him announce the re-launching of Swedish streaming service TIDAL, which Jay had acquired about 5 months prior in an effort to keep his name and his business ahead of the ever-changing curve of music consumption. The aforementioned stars were touted as co-owners of the business, as part of a model that credited and paid artists what they were properly owed, and not the callous royalty rates that companies like Spotify were reported to sport.
Since then, it’s been a roller-coaster ride, resulting in Jay Z holding intimate “B-Sides” shows to help communicate his mission statement to reluctant fans, and a lawsuit from one of Roc Nation’s first artists, Rita Ora, who claimed Hov’s focus on streaming and sports hurt her career. Still, TIDAL pushes onward, and today they triumphantly proclaim that not only have they hit the 3-million subscriber mark, but their exclusive release of Kanye West‘s The Life of Pablo album resulted in a whopping 250 million streams for West’s 7th solo LP. In just 10 days, to boot, so who knows that that number has ballooned to in the month it’s been since it’s been made available.
Since its original coronation, TIDAL has added a couple key co-owners to their ranks, including Lil Wayne and T.I., who will also be releasing his next album through Roc Nation channels.