Grimes Defends Tidal: "This Kind Of Thing Is So Important, Especially For Indie Music"

If you have paid attention to the music industry over the past few weeks, you would have seen the big hoopla about Jay Z's new music streaming service TIDAL. It has faced a wall of criticism from fans, artists and professional skeptics who question whether or not its message of "TIDAL For All" is actually meant to benefit every artist or just a few millionaire artists who were there to launch the product at the March 30 press conference. Today, Jay Z took the time to outline some TIDAL facts on Twitter, including saying that the company pays out 75 percent of its revenue to artists, writers and producers, higher than the 70 perfect that Spotify pays out in royalties, which largely lines the pockets of labels and distributors.

Artists who have been speaking out on the subject have been largely a mixed bag because of how low streaming payouts are right now and TIDAL hasn't really said how it will address that issue.. However 4AM artist Grimes, who is managed by Roc Nation, stepped up to defend the beleaguered streaming service, explaining how it is "important, especially for indie music." Read her full post on Instagram below.

Mad respect for tidal!! I literally know musicians who live in cars and storage spaces etc. And I know some pretty popular musicians who still struggle to make ends meet. Unless artists have a popular live show there aren't a lot of income streams available. this kind of thing is so important, especially for indie music! PS I Am signed to 4ad, an independent label. The misconception that I am not an independent artist anymore is incorrect, i can speak as an independent artist here, with 100% freedom to do and say as I please. Ps this is a rly productive convo and thanks to everyone being respectful and asking interesting qs respect! Glad to hear many of u buy music rather than stream which is the best way to support smaller artists! ^_^ and also, for those who can't afford streaming or buying music, I do not judge anyone for that! That's why I always try to release free songs like realiti or pay what u can a la halfaxa etc. This is a suggestion, not a demand, in sorry if some of yall take it negatively. but I love that we can have a dialogue on here and respect each other's opinions
A photo posted by Grimezsz (@actuallygrimes) on Apr 26, 2015 at 6:15pm PDT