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Tidal Owner Jay Z Has Removed All of His Albums From Apple Music [Updated]

melendezest said:
1. I agree, it IS widely up for debate. It is music after all, and a matter of taste. However, even reputable sources like Billboard Magazine put him in at #2:

http://www.billboard.com/photos/6723017/the-10-best-rappers-of-all-time

Also, having sold 100 million albums and earned 21 Grammys speaks strongly towards that assertion.

2. I did say you're entitled to your opinion, so no debate there.

3. All that said, to automatically assume that Apple isn't even partly responsible for this fallout seems a bit disingenuous.

The man is a highly successful businessman and thus should be given the benefit of the doubt here, is all I'm saying.

Everything else is somewhat irrelevant from the issue at hand.
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I give Apple more the benefit of the doubt than Jay-Z, on average, certainly. But I don't ever give Apple a blind pass with flying colors, either. I'm usually a hypercritical fanboy, if my Apple sentiments can be summarized. And I don't doubt there could have been some really bad business offerings from Apple and Spotify, as they offer fractions of a penny on a dollar in relation to what they collect overall by serving up this service, but that's streaming industry for you, record rip for the Artist 2.0 and a whole other discussion as criticism of where the industry is headed as a medium, convenient for consumers, bad for creators. The exposure part is great, but if you don't have the means to just see the merit in exposure and the financial breakdown as another, not necessarily good.

And Apple giving Drake a boatload of cash for AM exclusive. Exclusives from any side is dumb, and I agree with people saying it also leads to piracy for real fans that don't have service X but need to get their hands on record Y, and can't wait for it to either never come, or come way later when the dust has settled. They're fans!

And you mighta missed it but I clarified in stating if one means top 5, by volume and popularity, I'd agree. Jay-Z is a staple hip-hop name, seeing as how you cited billboard charts, I can assume that's what was meant? Grammys hold as much merit as do Academy Awards, i.e. to me they don't.

If you mean top 5 in terms of true top 5, like greatest, or most acclaimed/revered, I would very much disagree and expect that a lot of people likely would too,

from skimming comments here, and knee jerk reactions like mine, I'd say its not unfounded,

You said it too, he was a good business man to move units (records)... Not a pioneer of hip-hop. Can't conflate the two,

Formulaic blockbusters can and soar at the box office quite often, but don't always equate to quality (rarely do).

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I understand potentially why Jay-Z pulled out from Spotify/Apple Music (the two stream titans) but not Google Play music supposedly that poses little to no threat, and of course, the push for Tidal-- through exclusivity. But Jay-Z doesn't carry Nintendo 1st party title magic weight, people don't care enough about him in general to want to jump ship. Many are even firmly ambivalent.

And I think some people might be conflating my criticism of him, with any emotion I have from him pulling out from AM/Spotify. I too am part of the camp that couldn't care less and I am 100% unaffected by this. If not for reading about it, I would have no idea his library is no longer 'online'

Going even further, I would argue he's not talented enough anymore with new stuff or creating enough content that people are interested in, or on the edge of their seat for, especially in relation to his previous work that was once widely revered as has been argued and I could agree to to an extent in its prime, to where people will actually do anything about the loss of his stuff on AM/Spotify. They just won't have exposure to Jay-Z anymore, if they did at all.

It will just be to his detriment, is my prediction.

The wonderful thing is: none of us know the results of this, it just happened. Speculative is all this thread is, beyond opinions one way or another- like mine. Which we're all entitled to. We shall see :)
 
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C'mon, guys.

You don't need to completely dismiss entire music genres.

There is good rap, there is bad rock, etc, etc.

Rap is nothing but clever poetry, where it takes center stage over the music. Rock is musically centered and lyrics/vocals the somewhat of a background role.

Sometimes, we get a great combination of genres, like the mighty Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down, and Public Enemy (who even used Slayer (!) tracks as a background), that even a pro metalhead like Scott Ian of S.O.D. and (more famously) Anthrax was able to appreciate.

Personally, I prefer rock in all its forms (from Pixies to Tool to Dream Theater to Interpol...), and ignore 99% of all pop, country, hip hop, especially today's popular artists. If in the h-h mood, I prefer the intensity of older rap (Wu Tang Clan is STILL nothing to F with). But every now and then I even pop in some Beethoven (now THAT guy was intense) or even Larry Carlton.

But ALL music is awesome. If it moves someone, then it's good. Perhaps I see it this way because I'm a musician myself, and not an American (although I live in the US)...

Just my 2 cents...
 
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Despite AAC being a lossy compression technology, mastered for iTunes material is actually a higher quality audio encoding because it's mastered from 24bit material vs Tidal's more expensive "high fidelity" 44.1k 16bit at CD quality.
 
This is what u get from streaming services.. Sometimes not doing it legitimate is the best solution.
 
Apple should be slightly concerned. This could mean Beyonce will pull her music next, and Beyonce has an obsessive cult following, which are also the type that spends money.
 
blumpy said:
Despite AAC being a lossy compression technology, mastered for iTunes material is actually a higher quality audio encoding because it's mastered from 24bit material vs Tidal's more expensive "high fidelity" 44.1k 16bit at CD quality.
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Um, all CDs are mixed and mastered from higher quality sources/recordings. This point is moot.

Lossy AAC is not better than Lossless.

Mastered for iTunes is Apple's way of saying they're trying to enforce some control, consistency or quality in the mastering process such that the resulting balance sounds better or perhaps even suits their lossy format. It's their way of saying this meets our standard for a "good mix". Many pop records are mixed incredibly poorly, driven largely by the loudness war in recent decades.

As with most things Apple it's largely marketing. There's nothing to say producers won't use that "Mastered for iTunes" mix for other CDs or services. I've not found Mastered for iTunes albums to sound better or different than the official releases elsewhere. But I commend their efforts in pushing labels to produce better sounding mixes.
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blasto2236 said:
I gave them a solid go for a couple months back when Beats Music was yet-to-be-acquired and that was my service of choice. At the time, I went running back to Beats because Tidal's user interface sucked and there were huge gaps in their catalog if your tastes lean on the obscure side. The HQ was cool, but not worth $20/month for the shortcomings I mentioned previously.

I signed up for a trial with a different email when Kanye's latest was exclusive for a month or so last year. It didn't change that opinion, but to be fair I haven't used it in a year.
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The Apple catalogue is definitely bigger but I find a good range of fairly obscure stuff I like on Tidal. It's mainly older albums that seem to be missing for some reason.

Don't agree on the Tidal v Apple apps though. Tidal is loads better than iTunes on iOS. I can't stand the new iTunes app. Ugly, too white, text too large. Can't stand the way it mixes my purchased and downloaded content. Hate it.
 
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I dunno, people defended Apple when they stop selling junk in their stores. People do what they believe is in their best interest and this chap is just doing the same. More power to him.
 
It's strange seeing people in this thread defending Apple or bad mouthing Jay Z and trying to argue with others that they are "right" in whatever point they want to make in this thread.

Musical tastes are a personal preference, there is no right or wrong.
 
dmylrea said:
It's not like this happens daily that it would make one change how they acquire music. It hasn't happened to me yet, but if it did, there are plenty of other artist's music I can listen to. It's much more expensive and more "BS" to go through the trouble of purchasing CD's and ripping and syncing music that just deal with an occasional "Jay Z".
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Its just one reason I'm glad I still buy CDs, not the reason. Glad you are satisfied with streaming. Each his own.
 
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