Tidal also faces a wave of backlash!
Jay Z once said, “Can’t knock the hustle.”
The rapper and entrepreneur is working hard to get subscribers for his latest venture, Tidal, the online music streaming service.
Read: Jay Z's Tidal Music Service Set to Make Waves
He and his famous friends like Jack White are personally calling subscribers to thank them for signing up, according to an executive at the company, Vania Schlogel, Tidal’s Chief Investment Officer and Chief Industry Liaison.
Schlogel told Business Insider, “[Jay Z] called some of his fans and one of them made the funniest comment. He said, 'this is the best customer service call I’ve ever received!'"
Schlogel also said that Jay Z “works every day” on the service and he is “very deeply involved, and the reason being is because this is a life project for him."
Jay Z’s hard work is coming on the heels of much criticism Tidal has gotten from his colleagues and other musicians.
Death Cab for Cutie singer Ben Gibbard recently told The Daily Beast that the artists involved which include Kanye West, Daft Punk, Madonna, Rihanna, and other A-listers is a failure on Tidal's part by focusing on the superstars that don’t necessarily need the money.
Read: Kanye West Named One of Time's 100 Most Influential People
Gibbard said, “If I had been Jay Z, I would have brought out ten artists that were underground or independent and said, ‘These are the people who are struggling to make a living in today’s music industry. Whereas this competitor streaming site pays this person 15 cents for X amount of streams, that same amount of streams on my site, on Tidal, will pay that artist this much. I think they totally blew it by bringing out a bunch of millionaires and billionaires and propping them up onstage and then having them all complain about not being paid… this thing is going to fail miserably.”
Even Mumford and Son’s frontman Marcus Mumford spoke to The Daily Beast and said his band were not asked to join.
“We wouldn’t have joined it anyway, even if they had asked. We don’t want to be tribal,” he said.
Mumford also echoed Gibbard’s comments saying, “I think smaller bands should get paid more for it, too. Bigger bands have other ways of making money, so I don’t think you can complain. A band of our size shouldn’t be complaining. And when they say it’s artist-owned, it’s owned by those rich, wealthy artists.”
