Discovery lets unsigned artists upload music to the service and pick a preferred royalty structure without giving up rights to their music. Unsigned artists currently have ways to get onto Spotify and iTunes, but Tidal is making a point of promoting these artists, including a planned series of concerts around the US featuring the top streaming Discovery musicians. "We’ve already had hundreds of artists upload through Tidal Discovery," says Schlogel.
Tidal is more selective about which artists get added to the Rising program. Sveinung Rindal, who heads Tidal’s 15-person editorial team, says his crew "looks for artists that can grow a bigger audience and be players in the music game for years to come." Rindal’s team also runs Tidal’s digital magazine and playlist curation for the service. The plan is for artists included in Rising to get free PR and marketing support from Tidal, spending what Schlogel calls "real dollars." In some cases, they’ll be invited to perform live shows and be featured in behind-the-scenes videos and mini-documentaries.
Lili K, a neo-soul singer based in Chicago, was one of the first artists to be featured in Tidal Rising. "I honestly wasn’t quite sure what to expect," Lili K told me. Tidal filmed a mini-documentary starring the singer in Chicago and featured her content on its homepage, and Lili K’s music has now been streamed over 70,000 times on Tidal since being included in Rising. In contrast, Lili K’s
YouTube page has only generated 36,000 views since 2010.
"I do know that because Tidal has supported me so much I think it has gotten me the most traction," she says. "With Spotify and iTunes — I’m not saying they’re bad platforms or anything — but there is so much content, and a lot of times when you’re a smaller artist like me, you can kind of get buried underneath the bigger things. But with Tidal what’s really cool is my content is up there on the front page with the big superstars." If this is beginning to sound suspiciously like Tidal is using the promotional power of its streaming service to act like a label, well, you’re not wrong. In effect, Jay Z, the former Def Jam CEO, is creating a talent pipeline, full of new artists to break.
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