Tidal
Tidal (streaming platform)
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Tidal details | |||
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| Activity | 10 May, 2015 - present | ||
| Website: | tidal.com | ||
| Aliases: | None. | ||
| Social network: | None. | ||
| Domain name: | Not owned or operated by Prince or NPG Records | ||
| Validity: | Not owned or operated by Prince or NPG Records | ||
| Hosted by: | - | ||
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Tidal (stylized as TIDAL, also known as TIDALHiFi) is a subscription-based music streaming service offering lossless audio and high definition music videos with content curated directly by musicians and artists. Tidal is currently owned by Jay Z and a variety of other music artists from multiple genres. It is the first artist-owned music streaming service in the world.
More information about the history and ownership of Tidal can be found here; this article focuses on the unique offerings of Prince using the service.
First steps
Prince began using Tidal to offer unique content in May 2015, six weeks after the service’s artist-heavy public relaunch. In an interview with Fox9 during the recording of Baltimore on 29 April, 2015, Prince talked about the distribution of the song:
"We’re going to talk to Jay-Z and his people about streaming it on ‘Tidal'," he shared with a nod.
The song was instead streamed on a newly-created Prince3EG Soundcloud account, but Prince’s discussions on working with Tidal were already underway. Two days before Prince’s Rally 4 Peace show on 10 May, 2015, in Baltimore, MD, USA, Tidal announced it would live stream 60 minutes of audio from the concert, for free (pre-pay wall). This broadcast included the pre-show DJ set by Dudley D. as well as the first part of the show.
On 21 July, 2015 Tidal began streaming a music video for Baltimore, which was offered exclusively on the platform.
Prince’s partnership with Tidal increased dramatically a few months later.
Further developments
On 7 August, 2015, Prince’s album Hitnrun Phase One was announced as a Tidal exclusive, and when the album was made available on Tidal on 7 September, 2015, it was accompanied by a significant presence of exclusive material on the platform.
In addition to Hitnrun Phase One, several out-of-print albums were made available, including some NPG Music Club albums that had not previously been available in high definition: The Chocolate Invasion (with a slightly altered tracklist from its initial release in 2004), The Slaughterhouse, Xpectation, C-Note, N.E.W.S., One Nite Alone... and The Truth, as well as the majority of Prince’s main album catalog (which is more widely available through other retailers also).
The NPG Music Club albums for the first time contained the original artwork created for the releases in 2002/3, which in some cases had not been used for the 2004 releases. The War was also made available, and while the artwork given with the track kept the name New Power Generation, the credit given for the track was Prince.
A video section was also launched, including some videos not previously seen other than in a single broadcast: Indifference (previously seen in part during the Yahoo! Live album release party for Art Official Age and Plectrumelectrum) and Plectrumelectrum as well as a live version of Plectrumelectrum from 22 February, 2014, Manchester Academy 1, Manchester, England. Baltimore also remained available.
A "Purple Pick of the Week" section was also created, with a presence on the main Tidal homepage. The section was accompanied with the text:
"Stay tuned for Purple Picks - new tracks, exclusives, rarities and more from the vault, curated personally by Prince."
Content
The following exclusive (and previously-unavailable in high definition) content was released through Tidal
Audio
Albums
Available 7 September, 2015
1 This material was previously available as mp3 downloads, but not previously available on CD or high quality downloads
Available 7 November, 2015
- Oui Can Luv - Andy Allo feat. Prince (12-hour promotional stream only)
Available 12 December, 2015
- Hitnrun Phase Two (available only as a bundle with Hitnrun Phase One)
Purple Pick of the Week
Available 7 September, 2015
- Stare (3:43)
Available 14 September, 2015
- Stones - The Golden Hippie (2:40) - previously unavailable
Available 21 September, 2015
- Breathing Underwater - Hiatus Kaiyote (no known Prince input)
Available 28 September, 2015
- Free Urself (3:47) - previously unavailable
Available 5 October, 2015 (available 1 October, 2015 without Purple Pick of the Week title)
- ALWAYS playlist (see below)
Available 12 October, 2015
- Colonized Mind (4:48)
Available 19 October, 2015
- Pretzelbodylogic Reloaded (2:49) - previously unavailable
Available 26 October, 2015
- Back In Time album - Judith Hill
Available 2 November, 2015
- When Will We B Paid (4:09)
Available 9 November, 2015
- If Eye Could Get Ur Attention (2:43) - previously unavailable
Available 16 November, 2015
- Arboretum (3:25) - '’replacing One Nite Alone... (3:37), which was posted briefly
Available 23 November, 2015
- 1000 X’s & O’s (4:27)
Available 30 November, 2015
- The Ladder (5:28)
Available 7 December, 2015
- Turn Up - Judith Hill (3:27)
Available 14 December, 2015
- Look At Me, Look At U (3:27)
Available 21 December, 2015
- Big City (6:26)
Available 28 December, 2015
- Revelation (5:21)
Available 4 January, 2016
Available 11 January, 2016
- Ruff Enuff - Mono Neon (5:39) - previously unavailable; posted initially as instrumental, replaced a few hours later with vocal version
Available 18 January, 2016
- A Case Of U (3:39)
Available 25 January, 2016
- Overcome - Laura Mvula feat. Nile Rodgers (no Prince input)
Available 1 February, 2016
- Black Muse (Edited Version) (3:15) - previously unavailable
Available 8 February, 2016
- Givin Em What They Love (4:26) - Janelle Monáe
Available 15 February, 2016
Available 22 February, 2016
- Your Show (7:12) - Liv Warfield
Available 29 February, 2016
- Girl (3:48) - Prince and the Revolution
Available 7 March 2016
- Earth to Heaven - Esperanza Spalding (no Prince input)
Available 14 March 2016
- Little Red Corvette / Dirty Mind live (7:55)
Available 21 March 2016
Available 28 March 2016
- Use Me - Bill Withers (no Prince input, but covered live by Prince - see Use Me)
Available 4 April 2016
Available 11 April 2016
- I’m Only Dreaming - Sidibe (no Prince input)
Video
Music Videos
Available 21 July, 2015
- Baltimore (4:34)
Available 7 September, 2015
- Indifference - Prince and 3rdEyeGirl (3:09)
- Plectrumelectrum - Prince and 3rdEyeGirl (4:51)
Live Videos
Available 7 September, 2015
- Plectrumelectrum (Live in Manchester) - Prince and 3rdEyeGirl (4:43)
Available 11 December, 2015
- Crazy 2 Cool - 21-minute opening from the second show at Le Zenith in Paris, France on 1 June 2014.
Playlists
Posted 1 October, 2015
ALWAYS
"The title of this playlist is ALWAYS, because it always works."
- Give Me Your Love (Love Song) - Curtis Mayfield
- Since I Had You - Marvin Gaye
- Always - Toni Braxton
- Say Yes - Floetry
- 9 - Willow Smith (feat. SZA)
- Lay Down - Floetry
- Nothing Even Matters - Lauryn Hill (feat. D'Angelo)
- He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat) - Jill Scott
- Feel All My Love Inside - Marvin Gaye
- Somewhere Not Here - Alpha
Member Profile
Tidal subscriptions are offered on a monthly basis; pricing is available here. Downloads to play offline are only available within the Tidal program, but files cannot be moved to different programs, and users can only access the files while their subscriptions are active.
Reference
