Tidal Launches Direct-to-Artist Payments and User-Centric Royalties, Via $19.99 Hi-Fi Plus Tier Kevin Fleming November 18, 2021 Digital Media, Entertainment, Music News Tidal has announced a number of new updates including a new free tier and enhanced paid subscription tiers, direct-to-artist payments, what it describes as “fan-centered royalties.” Most interesting are the latter two categories, which partially address a longstanding complaint about streaming services: In a nutshell, under the current model, streaming services put all streams into one pile and pay artists, songwriters and rights-holders based on their percentage of that total number of streams. If you’re, say, Justin Bieber, BTS, the Weeknd or Adele, that’s a lot. If you’re not, it’s often not. By the “user-centric” model, creators and rights-holders would be paid based on how much each user streams their music — so if someone streams nothing but Maroon 5 or MC Hammer or Frumious Bandersnatch, that artist would receive all of the revenue derived from that subscription. Read more in Variety.com. Related
