Early Monday morning, a glut of musicians changed their social-media avatars in a show of support for Jay Z and his newly acquired and relaunched streaming service, TIDAL. Artists including Nicki Minaj, Jack White, Madonna, Rihanna, Kanye West, and Beyoncé turned their avatars teal blue and used the hashtag #TIDALforALL to tease Jay Z’s TIDAL, which purportedly combines hi-fi sound, hi-def music videos, and expertly curated editorial (whatever that means). “Change your avi in support of what is fair, of what is the future,†Minaj wrote on Instagram. “The tides have changed.†Jay Z will shed more light on TIDAL at a press conference Monday afternoon at New York’s James A. Farley Post Office at 5 p.m. The service, available Monday, offers lossless sound quality for $20 per month, or standard quality for $10 per month. As Pitchfork points out, there’s no free plan, but Taylor Swift (ouch, Spotify) and all of the major record labels have deals with TIDAL.
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