Jay Z’s Tidal Streaming Service Launches With Blue Avatars From Kanye West, Arcade Fire, Daft Punk, Third Man, & Others

Jay Z’s Tidal Streaming Service Launches With Blue Avatars From Kanye West, Arcade Fire, Daft Punk, Third Man, & Others

Jay Z wants you to know that Tidal, the Scandinavian high-fidelity streaming service that he bought earlier this month, is a big deal. So he didn’t just get some of music’s biggest stars to tweet about the service’s big relaunch, which is happening today. He got them all to change their social media avatars (on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, in addition to Twitter) to a violent light-blue square and ask their fans for “support,” as if this was a protest movement or something. That’s pretty gross, Jay!

Tidal is relaunching in the U.S. around 5PM eastern today, according to a countdown clock on the streaming service’s site. The service doesn’t have a free option like Spotify; it’s going for $19.99 a month for lossless hi-fidelity streaming quality, or $9.99 for standard audio quality. The service has deals with every major label, and it’s promising curated playlists and editorial content, as well. Right now, it has every Taylor Swift album streaming, whereas Swift pulled all her music from Spotify last year. And Jay is making a “special announcement” at a launch event in NYC this afternoon. It seems entirely possible that Jay’s Roc Nation management clients Kanye West and/or Rihanna could surprise-release their new albums as Tidal exclusives.

In the meantime, Jay got Twitter and Facebook support from a parade of luminaries that includes West, Rihanna, Madonna, Daft Punk, Arcade Fire, Beyoncé, Diddy, Coldplay, Jack White’s Third Man Records, Calvin Harris, Usher, and Nicki Minaj. Observe:

Daft Punk for Tidal

UPDATE: Tidal also got tons of celebrities to appear in this promo video.

UPDATE 2: Here are details from the launch event.

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