Sorry Jay, I'm Not Buying It

[*L*E*G*A*C*Y*]

I fukks with Jay, but I'm not stupid. He's trying to co-opt the press on Tidal and turn it into a Big Man vs. Little man, underdog, black vs. white type of rap feud. He's trying to politic the narrative and make it about the evil white corporation vs. the poor black hustler from Marcy trying to fight the system.

No Jay. You got caught being greedy and out of touch. You don't get to "come home" and make it a hip-hop thing. You don't get to trot Sigel out on stage under the guise of being that relatable dude that's about us.

This ain't about slavery, this ain't about Mike Brown, you don't get to make a martyr of yourself by mentioning those things when it's convenient. The nerve of using those terms while promoting a service that's all about charging more of my hard earned money to provide an inferior product and line your pockets.

You compete with Spotify by providing a better service or a cheaper service, like anything else in the market.

You need to write for a publication with posts like these...

 

[Lil Gangsta]

All u nikkas tlmbout Jay-Z gettin ahead in his business ventures, at all costs apparently(even the disrespectful manupilative use of real black tragedies, smh), is in the best interest of black folks

Tell me, how the hell is Jay-Z gettin even richer gonna benefit the black community?

Is he gon break bread wit every black person in America or sumthin?

Hes already a millionaire black man and wut the fukk has it done for black ppl?

 

[RTF]

Streaming services do benefit people and that's why millions are subscribed worldwide. Jay's point is simple--at no point in recent history has the wealth of the owner of a product been used against them. This is the same thing as the hit pieces Scott Boras had people writing when Jay Z was taking his clients. This is an angle that only works against artists because they have other responsibilities. Which is why all of those people were fighting off being called sell outs when no one says shyt about the owner of spotify because people do not care about him personally. How is this flying over the heads of people like @sporticus it is really straight-forward.

Sorry - to be clear - i'm all for streaming and I have a Spotify premium account. But I don't do so because I suddenly decided to support artists. The service is great. Full stop. I wouldn't change my streaming provider based on its benefits for artists. For me, the lossless USP is weak.

The marketing around Tidal was centered 90% about making streaming services fair for artists and how the artists are now the distributors of their product. So the focus was on "why should I make you guys richer?" You haven't told me why this product is better than the next mans. Basically - Jay made it about him and other rich artists. It was only multi-millionaires on that stage at the product launch. The message seemed to be "support Tidal to be fair to us" which was insulting.

 

[Rarely-Wrong Liggins]

Wait, he brought up Mike Brown and Trayvon Martin in relation to his business struggles?

Classic Camel BUT I read he has quietly been paying the bail of protesters recently. If true you can't hate on him for that. Shoehorning young murder victims into your war with Spotify is distasteful though. Those dualities.

 

[Gunshi]

i saw the video titles on wshh and it was very transparent what was taking place.. we see YOU camel. FOH!

 

[Matt504]

Why aren't all these white owned businesses held under a microscope like Jay with Tidal?

No one mentions Foxconn when deciding to buy a Samsung over an iPhone.

To be honest, this is yet another case of white ice being colder, Black people don't want to see Black people getting richer without a "well how is that gonna benefit me" attitude that isn't equally applied to white people, you're OK with them getting richer because you're more comfortable giving white people your money.

 

[No1]

Sorry - to be clear - i'm all for streaming and I have a Spotify premium account. But I don't do so because I suddenly decided to support artists. The service is great. Full stop. I wouldn't change my streaming provider based on its benefits for artists. For me, the lossless USP is weak.

The marketing around Tidal was centered 90% about making streaming services fair for artists and how the artists are now the distributors of their product. So the focus was on "why should I make you guys richer?" You haven't told me why this product is better than the next mans. Basically - Jay made it about him and other rich artists. It was only multi-millionaires on that stage at the product launch. The message seemed to be "support Tidal to be fair to us" which was insulting.

Right, and he and the others admitted that mistake. But people used that to launch into this whole "rich artists" complaining and why would I support the wealthy ever? That is what Jay is saying is fugazi. On that I hear him. But I cannot say whether or not this will succeed.

 

[DaChampIsHere]

When he does speak out for change people claim he's on that fake "pro black" steez.

People will do this to anyone who is low enough to say the authenticity of your blackness depends on buying streaming hippity-hop music and whether Nicki Minaj gets paid for repeating "Pills and potion, we're overdosing" at high quality digitizing rates.

----------------------------------

Also, I'm pretty sure Tidal is run by white/Indian engineers, not black people. In fact, I'm pretty sure the only black people who will benefit from this, large number, are the artist, so people shouldn't make Tidal out to be some economic saving grace for the black community.

Tidal is a bad product. As is all paid online music streaming service. Spotify is losing subscribers all the time. Even Souncloud is resorting to streaming ads now. Only a fool or stan will think that a product market that is dying out wholesale, should now succeed because a rapper said so. He needs to align himself with better engineers, better futurists, and people who can actually see where usable products and money are going. Tidal is late AF to the party. Party done.

Also, if we are going to make this a "black issue", I can think of a lot of other black issues that deserve $20/month more than streaming some music. How about we start identifying those problems if we all have an extra $20/month to give and love the black community so much?

nikkas in the hood starving and y'all are ranking blackness upon giving away $20/month and charging upyour data plan. BLack community is so confused. Next thread over you all will be supporting something that says black people have to exercise better financial decisions, stop wasting money, etc.

 

[Rekkapryde]

Why aren't all these white owned businesses held under a microscope like Jay with Tidal?

No one mentions Foxconn when deciding to buy a Samsung over an iPhone.

To be honest, this is yet another case of white ice being colder, Black people don't want to see Black people getting richer without a "well how is that gonna benefit me" attitude that isn't equally applied to white people, you're OK with them getting richer because you're more comfortable giving white people your money.

If his service was similar to Spotify, I'd ride with it. But no one is going to pay for something they can get for free with ads which is what Spotify is. I subscribe to their pay service myself since use it on my PS4, but most Spotify users use the free version.

 

[Rekkapryde]

People will do this to anyone who is low enough to say the authenticity of your blackness depends on buying streaming hippity-hop music and whether Nicki Minaj gets paid for repeating "Pills and potion, we're overdosing" at high quality rates.


Also, I'm pretty sure Tidal is run by white/Indian engineers, not black people. In fact, I'm pretty sure the only black people who will benefit from this, large number, are the artist, so people shouldn't make Tidal out to be some economic saving grace for the black community.

Tidal is a bad product. As is all paid online music streaming service. Spotify is losing subscribers all the time. Even Souncloud is resorting to streaming ads now. Only a fool or stan will think that a product market that is dying out wholesale, should now succeed because a rapper said so. He needs to align himself with better engineers, better futurists, and people who can actually see where usable products and money are going. Tidal is late AF to the party. Party done.

Also, if we are going to make this a "black issue", I can think of a lot of other black issues that deserve $20/month more than streaming some music. How about we start identifying those problems if we all have an extra $20/month to give and love the black community so much?

nikkas in the hood starving and y'all are ranking blackness upon giving away $20/month and charging upyour data plan. BLack community is so confused. Next thread over you all will be supporting something that says black people have to exercise better financial decisions, stop wasting money, etc.

STAY LOW!!!!!

 

[RTF]

Right, and he and the others admitted that mistake. But people used that to launch into this whole "rich artists" complaining and why would I support the wealthy ever? That is what Jay is saying is fugazi. On that I hear him. But I cannot say whether or not this will succeed.

Well no. "Why should I support the wealthy?" is a valid point when the wealthy are using their fame and appeal as the reason why you should buy their product. It was never an "ever" issue. Also with the freestyle he's made Tidal about him again. Rather than its qualities. And that's at the heart of the problem.

 

[RTF]

Spotify has 12m paying subscribers. Up from 10m around June 2014.

People will do this to anyone who is low enough to say the authenticity of your blackness depends on buying streaming hippity-hop music and whether Nicki Minaj gets paid for repeating "Pills and potion, we're overdosing" at high quality digitizing rates.

----------------------------------

Also, I'm pretty sure Tidal is run by white/Indian engineers, not black people. In fact, I'm pretty sure the only black people who will benefit from this, large number, are the artist, so people shouldn't make Tidal out to be some economic saving grace for the black community.

Tidal is a bad product. As is all paid online music streaming service. Spotify is losing subscribers all the time. Even Souncloud is resorting to streaming ads now. Only a fool or stan will think that a product market that is dying out wholesale, should now succeed because a rapper said so. He needs to align himself with better engineers, better futurists, and people who can actually see where usable products and money are going. Tidal is late AF to the party. Party done.

Also, if we are going to make this a "black issue", I can think of a lot of other black issues that deserve $20/month more than streaming some music. How about we start identifying those problems if we all have an extra $20/month to give and love the black community so much?

nikkas in the hood starving and y'all are ranking blackness upon giving away $20/month and charging upyour data plan. BLack community is so confused. Next thread over you all will be supporting something that says black people have to exercise better financial decisions, stop wasting money, etc.

 

[H@LLOW]

all this emotion over a product you don't want

Word. He needs to put all that energy into something more productive.

 

[Cloud McFly]

Why aren't all these white owned businesses held under a microscope like Jay with Tidal?

No one mentions Foxconn when deciding to buy a Samsung over an iPhone.

To be honest, this is yet another case of white ice being colder, Black people don't want to see Black people getting richer without a "well how is that gonna benefit me" attitude that isn't equally applied to white people, you're OK with them getting richer because you're more comfortable giving white people your money.

dap + rep

All these cats can say is how is it gonna benefit them, and saying people are trying to guilt them into purchasing, when that's not the point at all.

Nobody says you should buy Tidal because it's black owned. If you feel it's inferior to other services, that's all fine and dandy, pick the better option for you. It's just that you go the extra mile to shyt on this one over the others, which you don't at all, and you don't even know why.

Cats are so blind.

 

[Kenyan West]

I hear yall "wake up nikkas!!! i'm no fool!!" ass nikkas. You all make valid points. Dismissing 100% of what is said by yall is foolish.

But it all comes town to this for me : I downloaded Tidal for the free trial, and found that it's not that different from Spotify. I actually like the user interface a bit better. Pleasing to the eye, videos, exclusive content. Cool shyt. Let's be honest --Tidal doesn't blow Spotify out of the water or anything, not even close. Admittedly, that's where Jay fukked up, they should have launched with some new and innovative features. But the service is still young, so whatever.

Tidal doesn't have to be this amazing streaming service to get my ten bucks. The fact that a black man offered a service just as good as the competition is enough for my support. I switched from Spotify to Tidal last week.

I understand how that will make me look like a "stan" or whatever, but I couldn't care less. You black, and you on point? I'm there.