Jay Z Announces First Ever Artist-Owned Streaming Service

With his fingers already dipped into a clothing line, beauty products, a nightclub franchise, a basketball team, a real estate development venture and a Champagne brand, its about time Jay Z pushed the envelope with a music streaming business.

After acquiring the Swedish streaming service Tidal for an easy $56 million of chump change earlier in the month, the New York rapper/business mogul has official relaunched the service, partnering up with the music major league to make it happen. With an aim to rid the world of muddy sounding MP3s and restore the value of music with a streaming service owned by artists, Jay Z has roped in a few of his awards-laden musical cohort - namely Beyonce, Rihanna, Kanye West, Jack White, Arcade Fire, Drake, Usher, Nicki Minaj, Coldplay, Alicia Keys, Calvin Harris, Daft Punk, deadmau5, Jason Aldean, J. Cole and Madonna - to run the site.

Each artist is a co-owner of Tidal and was offered a 3% stake in the company to secure exclusive releases, a factor that will ideally drive music lovers to subscribe.

Jay Z told Billboard, "People are not respecting the music, and devaluing what it really means. People really feel like music is free, but will pay $6 for water. You can drink water free out of the tap and it's good water. But they're okay paying for it. It's just the mindset right now."

Tidal is targeted at audiophiles, offering higher quality audio in comparison to other streaming sites like Spotify and Deezer. Monthly subscriptions will cost $19.95 for high fidelity streaming and $9.95 for standard quality. There are no free plans.

The relaunch saw the occupation of four new countries: Poland, Germany, Hong Kong and Australia. Crossing our fingers New Zealand gets added onto the list soon.