Tidal exclusives: Jay Z's streaming app hopes Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé can win users round
Content offered only on the "artist owned" streaming service could be a selling point for the service
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Your support makes all the difference.Tidal has released perhaps its first major exclusive content, a video featuring Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé — likely the first in a run of attempts to win people over from established rivals like Spotify.
Jay Z's streaming music service launched to much concern about a self-aggrandising video, and has been mocked for performing badly since. But part of the service's selling point is its connections with artists themselves, which has been expected to bring original and exclusive content that can't be seen on competitors.
Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé's video for 'Feeling Myself' is the first of those to make a major splash. A number of people on Twitter and other social networks said that they had signed up for Tidal just to watch the video.
Vevo, a video hosting service run by music labels, tweeted its surprise at the release. Vevo had hosted its own exclusive earlier in the day, premiering Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood' video.
The service itself promoted the video on Twitter, where it received 6,200 retweets.
.@nickiminaj & @Beyonce team up for #FeelingMyself. Watch now, exclusively on http://t.co/We5OlPjQmL https://t.co/GjFgr6hJdf
— TIDAL (@TIDALHiFi) May 18, 2015 Leaked streams of the video are available elsewhere on the internet.
Tidal launched with a series of exclusive songs and videos — some of which, such as Rihanna's 'Bitch Better Have My Money' have now been moved onto other services like Spotify. It has hosted other exclusive content since, like a live concert by Jay Z where he compared other streaming music services to slavery.
The site has similar pricing to Spotify, and a much more limited library. But from the off it was assumed that the it would leverage its connections to bring exclusives — though some expected releases, such as Kanye West's new album, have been ruled out.
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